The following comes from a Nov. 26 story in the OC Breeze.
Catholic Charities of California announced today it received a $250,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to support CalFresh outreach and enrollment assistance services to low-income Californians. CalFresh is the state’s name for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and California currently has one of the lowest participation rates in the nation. About 55% of eligible California residents receives CalFresh benefits, costing the state an estimated $4.7 billion in untapped federal benefit dollars, and an estimated $8.3 billion in local ecoomic activity which would result from those benefits being utilized to purchase food.
The donation will support CalFresh outreach and enrollment assistance activities by 11 local Catholic Charities agencies in over 20 counties throughout the state. Agencies include Cahtolic Charities Diocese of Fresno, Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, Catholic Social Service of Solano County (part of Catholic Charities of Sacramento), Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, Catholic Charities Diocese of Santa Rosa, Catholic Charities Diocese of Stockton, Catholic Charities CYO (Archdiocese of San Francisco), Catholic Charities of Orange County, and Catholic Charities Diocese of Monterey. Counties include Fresno, Merced, Solano, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Lake, Humboldt, Mendocino, Napa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolomne, San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Orange, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and San Luis Obispo.
Local Catholic Charities staff work in these counties to help California’s most vulnerable populations access CalFresh benefits through various activities including distributing CalFresh materials, pre-screening households for elegibility, assisting households to complete and submit CalFresh applications, conducting follow-up with clients and county eligibility staff to address application issues and advocate for clients, and assisting enrolled participants to complete mandatory reporting to maintain benefits.
“We are thrilled to have the support of the Walmart Foundation for this critical work in counties across California. In the current economic climate, donations and other resources which historically support this work have been drastically reduced — at a time when more and more Californians find themselves struggling financially and at risk for hunger. Local Catholic Charities provide clients with comprehensive professional social services to increase self-sufficiency. Hunger puts families at risk for so many negative outcomes — poor school and work performance, poor health, for a start — it is usually one of the first and most fundamental issues that must be addressed in order to stabilize a household. This gift will make it possible for local Catholic Charities to reach more than 15,000 Californians,” said Shannon Lahey, Executive Director for Catholic Charities of California….
We are told that 55% of eligible Californians are accessing the food stamp program. This would mean that 45% of Californians who are eligible are not accessing the program, so money is being spent to sign us up. I say “us” because I am one of those 55 %ters. While I am sure not eating steak these days, nor wearing fancy threads, I am not starving nor am I naked either. The government has no business taking money from one citizen, under the threat of imprisonment, and giving it to another. This is not charity! As for Walmart, the money they donate toward this effort, will pay off for them if enough extra people are added to the dole. I shop at Walmart, and if I had more money to spend, I would likely be spending more of it there. Well thanks, but no thanks. If government got out of the way, then more of us would have jobs and Catholic Charities would go back to being a real “Catholic Charity” rather than an extension of a corrupted governmental body!
Tracy, the problem is that the Walmarts of the world are paying their employees at such low wages that they need charity. Henry Ford, the ultimate example of capitalism, said that any one of his employees ought to be able to afford his product. And so he paid them a wage far above the national low wage (there was no mandated minimum wage in his day). If Walmart employees, working fulltime, cannot afford to feed, clothe, and house their own employees, what does that say about the state of capitalism today?
I have no evidence that 55% of CA is receiving FoodStamps. It is a VERY inflated percentage.
Where can we get an accurate number that is not politically involved?
Anonynous, the point is that this “War on Hunger” IS politically motivated. It is about redistribution of wealth and the leveling of everyone to State Serfdom (except, of course, for the “ruling class” elite)!
It is 55% of those eligible for food stamps receive them.
Tracy, hello. To be honest my interests aren’t or haven’t been political, I read Drudge, but sometimes it’s in one ear & out the other, as I have nobody to share this stuff with.
Off the point, I’m more concerned with the future death of the Pacific Ocean, and there is no known “cure” for it.
God’s blessings to you. Keep the good fight.
Are we forgetting the homeless?
Abeca, I am told that there is a year long waiting list for those of us who want his/her chance to serve food (for one hour) to the homeless at the Union Rescue Mission in Downtown Los Angeles. Evidently, everyone here in Southern California wants to get into the act of feeding the homeless! I don’t think that we are forgetting them!
Just imagine if even a fraction, of those eager volunteers, rather went to pray in front of one of the numerous abortion clinics which surround the Union Rescue Mission?! This is a place where one can really help to improve someone’s life!
Let us not set up a contrast between helping the poor and protesting against abortion. Both are necessary.
Waiting lists for doling out food at soup kitchens exist only at Thanksgiving, as many people decide to serve the homeless and poor on such a day. There is no such problem all the rest of the year. Most people who volunteer to help serve year-round do so through their churches, where there are ongoing ministries that serve the needy food either daily (big cities usually), weekly, or monthly. Many people cook, and some of them also serve that same day or evening, and others help financially, administratively, or in assisting in behind-the-scenes ways.
There is always a need for more volunteers, more food donations, more financial support, and more community concern for the needy, who, but for the grace of God, could just as easily be ourselves.
Thank you Maryanne I agree
Dear Marianne,
Up North of San Francisco the St. Vincent Food Kitchen has lines all year round, and now that the freeze is here this coming week, many homeless under the bridges will suffer & some will die.
We do need more money for our poor in food, shelter & clothing. How can anyone not know & understand this?
You are right, and you are right!
I realize that I may sound cold hearted to many of you. I do care about both the unborn, slated for state approved execution as well as the person who is sleeping under a bridge. I agree that in both cases, we need to meet the acute needs of both classes of individuals.
What I am trying to do is to point out and wake people up to return our society to a place of sanity. The reason people are dying in the womb and on the streets IS because of the Liberal policies, which were put in place decades ago and being further encouraged more and more today. It IS because of a break down in virtuous living which has caused a record number of children being cared for by the State. we are constantly being told that this IS the way things ARE and the only solution IS to throw more money at it.
Let me give you an example, over a decade ago, a Los Angeles man came up with an idea for a tent city for the homeless. He worked towards helping them with their substance abuse problems as well as there other social and psychological problems. He did not accept government grant money. When the tent city residents started improving their lives, the city officials shut them down! Why, because the politicians who say they care about the poor aren’t lying! They DO care about keeping the poor POOR!
If you don’t believe me, then look at all of the cities and states around our country which were once prosperous and have now declined into bankrupt hellholes! What do the majority of these places have in common? They have been dominated by Liberal policies!
If you want to place a major role in reducing future cases of homelessness, open your homes up to a child who has lived in numerous foster homes, is about to turn 18, and will soon find themselves out on the street fending for him or herself without any family support.
Does ‘Catholic Charities of California’ adhere as REQUIRED to: “ON the SERVICE of CHARITY” in order that they will not merely be another social services organization in ALL of their endeavors?
https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20121111_caritas_en.html
Quote: “……. In carrying out their charitable activity, therefore, the various Catholic organizations should not limit themselves merely to collecting and distributing funds, but should show special concern for individuals in need and exercise a valuable educational function within the Christian community, helping people to appreciate the importance of sharing, respect and love in the spirit of the Gospel of Christ. The Church’s charitable activity at all levels must avoid the risk of becoming just another form of organized social assistance.” UNQUOTE.
and
QUOTE: ” Article 1 § 3. In addition to observing the canonical legislation, the collective charitable initiatives to which this Motu Proprio refers are required to follow Catholic principles in their activity and they may not accept commitments which could in any way affect the observance of those principles.” UNQUOTE
Let me insert a true picture of how St. Vincent, at least where I live works, quite differently from the old days, as they have given-up on going home-to home to clients & interviewing them for their needs.
Yes at our parish they are given a beautiful spread of many groceries monthly, but it’s wham, bam, thank you & out the door.
There is NOTHING done for spiritual support as is more important.
The St. Vincent donations store tells us there is no money for a mattress, couch or recliner. They are keeping funds for their own ideas, which does not help the poor. They should be investigated, interviewed and let go so it is handled properly.
Poverty has been institutionalized in the United States. It is said that 1/3rd of Los Angeles County residents are currently eligible for food stamps, yet, there are godzillian more restaurants (serving food) in La County now than there ever were back in the 60’s. Back then, few people were on the public dole and it was not uncommon for a postal carrier to be the proud sole supporter of a wife and 7 children! Back then we had Blue Collar and White Collar jobs. Now we have the “Class System”. The “war on poverty”, implemented in the 1960’s, has effectively destroyed the black family. It has empowered the Democrat Party. It has set up “class envy” between the “haves and have nots”. It has encouraged fraudulent behavior. People used to give thanks to Almighty God for having a roof over their heads and simple food in their stomachs. Now they typically sneer at their neighbor who has more “stuff” than them and cry “unfair”!
We Americans have always been a compassionate people and we want to eliminate starvation wherever it exist. This is right and just! But I can say with upmost certainty that the “war on poverty” aids the devil and the Democrat Party, it certainly does not help God and His people.
A great article I have found which does a better job of explaining all of this than I ever could is: theconservativemind.net/2012/05/01/poverty-politics-and-race-in-the-united-states/ What we currently have in America is not a lack of food in our stomachs but rather a lack of virtue in our souls!
The pope may have a bone to pick with you.
I doubt it. I think he would be happy to see us go back to the days when Catholics married before having children and remained faithful to their spouses for a lifetime. When they lived simple lives with many children around the kitchen table and Mom staying home to raise them and Dad going to work each day to support them!
I have never shopped at Wal-Mart, the way they treat their employees is disgusting! A large number of Wal-Mart employees are on public assistance, however, you can pick-up a big screen tv at a great price!!
YFC and TEM, just last week I again found myself in a conversation with another, Walmart white middle age employee, who talked about how much she loved working there! She had previously worked for another big box store, so she had something to compare her experience with.
Now I agree with both of you that the average employee at Walmart will never end up rich off of his/her salary. In fact I would argue that Walmart, as well as other employers, sets the wages they do have precisely BECAUSE OF government interference! Just as unmarried men no longer “need” to marry the mothers of their bastard children, as they once did during the era of “Henry Ford”, neither does Walmart have any incentive to pay a comparable salary to their employees as that of “Henry Ford”! Why is this? Because we now have “welfare state bureaucrats” who willingly pick up the tab!
Government bureaucrats need to get out of the charity business! Their policies have generated an unbelievable amount of destruction to the American people! The reason Lefty politicians (of both parties), as well as the Left Steam media, criticize companies such as Walmart for not “supporting” their employees, all the while virtually ignoring dead beat dads, is because their end game is for the American people to willingly give the GOVERNMENT COMPLETE CONTROL over every aspect of American life! This includes one’s job and one’s family. The nanny state comes along with it grave consequences!
You may be right, but I have no understanding of economics, and to hear the talking heads of each party show how…I only either trust or not.
In order to explain things to the underdogs the language MUST become more understandable. We don’t even THINK of the stock market’s new bubble.
People, let us help one another with understanding not so critical of the other parties, as it shows a bias, and this is really a turnoff, as the poor naturally gravitate toward the Dems.
Thank you. We need good teachers, lecturers in the city square as well as the almoners who love people.
John Stiple, the “talking heads” are there to give us our marching orders, not to educate us. There are many great resources to learn about economics. One is Hillsdale, college’s free on-line, Economics 101, course which is the same class their students take. Professor Thomas Sowell is another brilliant man and educator on economics. Look him up on YouTube for many of his lectures. He has also published a shelf load of very readable books. If we really care about helping the poor, then we need to start educating ourselves and stop listening to the “ruling class elite” and their “talking heads”!
How many of us ever wonder why in the world we have a “War on Hunger” and not a “War on Starvation”?
After all, hunger is a God given gift! If we were never hungry, many of us would most likely starve to death! The word anorexia means “a loss of appetite”! This is not a good condition to have!
Fasting is also a gift from God! One who Fasts, imposes hunger onto oneself! Jesus gives us a virtuous example of this practice. At the end of Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert He was hungry, and surprise, surprise, guess who showed up to tempt Jesus to break His fast?!!!! Yep, Satan himself! You might say that this is one of the most famous stories which includes “The War on Hunger” as one of its topics!
Wow Tracy you are deep. I understand your anger with how this country is being run, but I don’t see it changing and we still have our poor….I feel so blessed to have my health and for that, I see no system anymore, I only see what I can do one person at a time. If I can bless one person a day, then I am grateful. But if my health slows me down….well….God have mercy on me. Setting aside all the flaws in our system, we still have good people struggling and if we can bless them with just one meal.. then so be it. : )
Abeca, I don’t see it changing either! But that doesn’t mean that it can’t. If we keep turning a blind’s eye to the truth all the while continuing to ride the liberal train to Dooms town, then it most certainly never will! Liberal policies have gotten us into this mess. Catholic people embracing deception and pagan practices has gotten us into this mess. Only virtue and temperance will return our nation to its right order.
Please do not think that because I speak of these things that I am not personally involved in helping the poor and needy. I give more time to helping those in need than the majority of people I happen to know. (yes, that includes helping “illegal aliens”!) What angers me is that an organization that calls itself “Catholic Charities” is actually taking grant money with the sole purpose of finding individuals to sign up for Government Welfare. Government welfare is another word for redistribution of wealth. It is not catholic charity! I am not afraid to speak out about this.
Abeca, please allow me to further clarify what I am saying, Government welfare, (which includes free contraception and abortion services), is about destroying the nuclear family! Christian charity ALWAYS respects free will! Christian charity never divorces the Spiritual Works of Mercy from the Corporal Works of Mercy. Christian charity ALWAYS upholds the Ten Commandments!
2. The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger for believers too. Many fall prey to it, and end up resentful, angry and listless. That is no way to live a dignified and fulfilled life; it is not God’s will for us, nor is it the life in the Spirit which has its source in the heart of the risen Christ.
Evangelii Gaudium
Anonymous, thank you. I agree with what you say!
Its not about being right all the time, but its about saving souls….a saint once said that…..I forgot who that was…..but it is a saying that revisits me often, reminding me what really matters the most.
Abeca, I am not sure why you posted the above. To me “saving souls” is analogous with “The Truth”. Doesn’t being “right” imply being with “The Truth”?
Tracy, we live in a competitive world. Fifty years ago companies were competing for well trained employees. When you compete for employees you offer good wages and good benefits. When you don’t compete for employees you don’t have to offer good salaries and benefits. America today is very different from fifty years ago. For whatever reasons, the left and the right have different views on the subject, companies now only compete for high-tech employees and people with trades. There are no longer jobs for untrained and uneducated people. Our elementary and secondary schools don’t prepare people for the world of work, so those who have to tech skills or basic trade skills must work in non-competitive industries- generally the service world of shop keepers, maids, yard workers, etc. During all of this change in our society and culture we have not come to grips with what a minimum pay package should look like. We have not grappled with the idea of what a “fair wage” should be. For example, should a person be able to pay for a decent apartment or small home, buy food for the family, make a car payment and provide medical insurance for the family? That would require about $30/hour in pay, unless the company paid for the benefits. Most companies in this country need a license to operate a business. That license could include the need to pay a fair wage, provide certain benefits, etc. Failing that requirement, we as a nation must make up the difference some how.
Bob One, our “American” world IS different today and it is because of our elected officials abandoning our Constitution and rule of law. We have massive governmental agencies, which never existed 50 years ago, run by unelected bureaucrats who have the power to impose regulations, fees and fines on the American people. We have litigation attorneys enticing people to sue for everything under the sun. We have a government who has allowed 10’s of millions of people to illegally flood into our country, buy property, march in our streets demanding their “rights”, work with fake or stolen IRS cards or work under the table accepting below market wages, expect their free healthcare and education for they and their children. They do not have to abide by all of the regulations that we citizens do. And if they do get into trouble here, they always have an escape route back into THEIR country.