Poor children in Minnesota should be entitled to the same food rights as their peers. Their parents should be able to pick up a box of cake mix and ice cream to celebrate their birthdays. They should be able to have Kool-Aid when their friends come over to play. They should not have to wonder why they can not have pizza and pop for the occasional sleepover. They should have the option of a dessert at a holiday meal.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno want to pass a bill that would not allow children these options. They want you to believe that welfare recipients (often parents of children) are not responsible enough to choose how to spend the food stamp money allocated to them. They want you to buy into the thought process that the poverty stricken are taking full advantage of your tax dollars.
What Pawlenty and Goodno fail to tell the public is that there are already work requirement guidelines in place and there are full-time employees who qualify for food stamps. For some recipients, food stamps are the only assistance they receive; they are otherwise self-supporting. They further fail to recognize or to acknowledge that in many single parent households the enforcement of child support obligations would bring additional money into the home of some single parents who receive food stamps, which could possibly lead to the overall goal of self-sufficiency. Pawlenty and Goodno claim that is the goal, correct?
It's time to wake up, Minnesotans. You cross the paths of food stamp recipients everyday and likely don't realize it. They work in the nursing homes, the supermarkets, the banks, the factories and some even work in various capacities within corporate offices. If they are capable of taking care of our elderly, ringing up our orders, processing our money, and typing up company documents, they should be capable of budgeting food stamps and making the appropriate choice as to what their children will eat.
Penny Simiyu
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Co-Director
Neglect Our Children No More
West Fargo
