Nutritional Assistance to Women Infants and Children is Everyone's Responsibility

Providing nutrition to Women, Infants and Children, the WIC program has long been vital to millions of low income Americans. 

On day 9 of the government shutdown, North Carolina ran out of money to operate the WIC program in the state. Those in need of WIC assistance in NC were instead referred to food banks in the state.

Later the same day, the North Carolina based grocery chain Food Lion stepped up with a massive donation of $500,000 in Food Lion gift cards to various food banks in NC.

Food Lion's $500,000 contributions to North Carolina food banks is EXTREMELY generous. I cannot state enough gratitude to them for this financial contribution to address the ongoing food needs of low income children and parents despite the tomfoolery in Congress. More companies with the means should be following Food Lion's example.

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There is a concern however. How much of the core problem is actually addressed beyond the headlines?

$500,000 is a LOT of money.  

Many people reading that headline will quickly make the false assumption that the problem is solved, even if only temporarily. Maybe even most people will assume that Food Lion's great generosity has filled the need gap in the WIC program for North Carolina for the duration of the government shutdown. In fact, that is the implied message of most reporting on Food Lion's generous donation to NC food banks. Most don't bother to go beyond the headline and actually look at how far that fills the degree of need in NC.

Here are the numbers.

The WIC program in North Carolina costs $205 million per year.1

Divide that amount by 365 days, and you realize it costs $0.56 million per day.

Let the scope of that need here just sink in for a moment. In North Carolina alone, just meeting basic nutritional needs of low income families with children under 5 costs $560,000 per day. 

Despite the extreme generosity of Food Lion's contribution towards this need amidst the government shutdown, their entire contribution does not even meet the challenge for one day!

This simple arithmetic is glossed over or flat out ignored in nearly all reporting on Food Lion's good deed.

I point this out not to diminish in any way the contributions of Food Lion, but rather to demonstrate the ignorance of narrow ideology that not only fails to recognize the importance of government programs, but seeks to end the majority of them.

There is a streak in American political thought that fails to recognize the importance for us all to keep the least amongst us from slipping into abject poverty. Those expressing this philosophy view themselves as victims when our collective tax dollars are used to address this need. In their philosophy, "compassion" is a matter solely for the individual, or the church, or the small non-profit organization. Penn Jillette's comments from an old Time magazine interview encapsulate this too-oft repeated ideology.

Penn Jillette offers a view that helping the least among us is best left to
the individual's sense of compassion, and is not a role for taxpayer dollars.
Tim Whittemore points out that "...such individualized help
proves woefully incapable of meeting the basic challenge. "

In this graphic, two quotes express heavily contrasting viewpoints over the role of government safety nets. Jillette offers that there is great joy in helping people yourself, but then expresses feelings of victimization when his tax dollars are used to fund such government programs, even going so far as to complain that such "bullying" is done "at gunpoint". In contrast, Tim Whittemore points out that leaving "compassion" to only the private sector has numerous drawbacks, including an inability to keep the safety net high enough for just basic needs.

"…To believe that simply leaving 'compassion' or safety nets to the sole responsibility of the individual or small non-profit group will ever be either adequate or consistent is pure fantasy….Regardless of what minimal safety nets against absolute poverty we may instill via government, the individual can always show true compassion by helping poor and suffering people themselves. Nothing stops anyone from doing so. Yet such individualized help proves woefully incapable of meeting the basic challenge…" - Tim Whittemore

"Yet such individualized help proves woefully incapable of meeting the basic challenge."

When Food Lion's generous contribution of $500,000 to North Carolina food banks meets less than one day's needs in just one state, the evidence for that statement should be overwhelmingly obvious.

1 - http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2013/10/09/food-lion-donates-500k-as-shutdown.html?page=2