Marine families in bread lines at Camp Pendleton
John Manning
"Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the
energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the
world."
"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in
foreign policy."
~~ Both quotes are from Henry Kissinger, frequent Bush Administration
advisor
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger
Many military families rely on donated goods
By Rick Rogers
The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 13, 2006
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061013/news_7m13bread.html
The women and children who formed a line at Camp Pendleton last week
could have been waiting for a child-care center to open or Disney on Ice
tickets to go on sale.
Instead, they were waiting for day-old bread and frozen dinners packaged
in slightly damaged boxes. These families are among a growing number of
military households in San Diego County that regularly rely on donated food.
As the Iraq war marches toward its fourth anniversary, food lines
operated by churches and other nonprofit groups are an increasingly
valuable presence on military bases countywide. Leaders of the
charitable groups say they're scrambling to fill a need not seen since
World War II.
Too often, the supplies run out before the lines do, said Regina Hunter,
who coordinates food distribution at one Camp Pendleton site.
“Here they are defending the country. . . . It is heartbreaking to see,”
said Hunter, manager of the on-base Abby Reinke Community Center. “If we
could find more sources of food, we would open the program up to more
people. We believe anyone who stands in a line for food needs it and
deserves it.”
The base's list of recipients swells by 100 to 150 people a month as the
food programs streamline their eligibility process, word spreads among
residents and ever-proud Marines adjust to the idea of accepting donated
goods.
At least 2,000 financially strapped people in North County qualify for
food and other items given out at the center and a Camp Pendleton
warehouse run by the Military Outreach Ministry.
To the south, about 1,500 individuals pick up free food, diapers or
furniture at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and several
military-oriented distribution sites supported by churches and the San
Diego Food Bank.
The numbers don't include military households that frequent other
charities countywide to get enough to eat.
“I cry tears of joy every week,” said Patty Dutra of the Military
Outreach Ministry. “You are looking at them and saying 'thank you' and
they say, 'No, thank you.' ”
Some of the women in last week's food line at Camp Pendleton were
newbies like Jennifer Stocker, 25. A friend told Stocker, the mother of
7-week-old Shylah and wife of Cpl. James Stocker, about the service. She
arrived an hour early to get first picks.
“It looks good,” Jennifer Stocker said as she glanced at the tables
stacked with loaves of French bread and doughnuts covered with red,
white and blue sprinkles.
“It looks helpful,” Stocker added as Shylah gummed her mother's wrist.
“I'm definitely going to start doing more of this.”
Also present were food-line veterans trying to make ends meet. Michelle
Rankins counts herself as a reluctant regular.
“I do this for the kids,” said Rankins, whose husband is a corporal
deployed in Iraq. “They need the protein from the bread. For me and my
family – for a lot of the families at Camp Pendleton – this (program) is
a necessity. I come every week.”
Barbara Chavez deals with many similarly challenged families in San
Diego County. She is director of Military Outreach Ministries, which
supplies bread and other staples to troops and their loved ones at the
Miramar base, a Navy housing community in Lakeside and other locations.
“The bases are in the more expensive parts of the county and things like
gas, food, insurance and rent are just higher here,” Chavez said. “I got
a call last night from a lady in need. She ran out of baby formula and
diapers. She's 22 with two kids under 3 and her husband is in Iraq. She
was distraught and cried for 10 minutes. This happens more often than not.”
On the Miramar base last week, Melissa Dixon came to receive diapers,
paper plates and canned goods. Her husband, John, is a lance corporal
stationed there.
“Believe it or not, there are a lot of military families struggling,”
said Dixon, 22, as fighter jets flew overhead.
At the Navy housing complex in Lakeside, Nicole Purselley said she
wouldn't know what to do without the donated food.
“One week we couldn't come to get food because we didn't have gas
money,” said Purselley, a mother of three whose husband is a hull
technician aboard the Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship based
in San Diego.
Purselley's disabled mother, Kathy Frisbie, lives with the family.
Frisbie said the gracious spirit in which the food is given makes taking
it easier on their pride.
“They don't look down on us because we are here,” Frisbie said.
During World War II, the National Presbyterian Church started an
outreach program for military families coast to coast. In 1968, the
Presbytery of San Diego took responsibility for the local chapter.
The presbytery spun off its military food program this year, with
oversight now divided between the Military Outreach Ministry in North
County and Military Outreach Ministries in the rest of the region.
“(Service members) struggle because of our cost of living,” said Faye
Bell, executive director for the Military Outreach Ministry. “The
lower-ranking enlisted guys do all the hard work and still have the
stress of not being able to take care of their families the way they
wish they could.”
listentoairamerica
The men taking care of the dirty work have to leave their families and
the government won't help them.
John Manning
But they'll give multi-billion dollar tax breaks to the rich - and pay
billions to their filthy rich corrupt corporate no-bid contract friends.
Kevin Z
Damn John, Liberals have a fit over the military budget. You do your
bets to get rid of it all. The end result, is our Boys don't get paid
worth squat. Then with typical hypocrisy you parade it around like it's
all Bushes fault.
Get off your ass and vote in some Republicans who will raise the Pay and
Benefits, for our Men and Women of the Military, if you truly want to
solve the problem
Your beloved Democraps surely won't do anything about it.
--
Kevin Z
You can make yourself miserable, or you can make yourself strong. It
takes the same amount of energy.
(Carlos Casteneda)
John Manning
> John Manning wrote:
>
>
> Damn John, Liberals have a fit over the military budget. You do your
> bets to get rid of it all.
> The end result, is our Boys don't get paid
> worth squat. Then with typical hypocrisy you parade it around like it's
> all Bushes fault.
> Get off your ass and vote in some Republicans who will raise the Pay and
> Benefits, for our Men and Women of the Military, if you truly want to
> solve the problem
> Your beloved Democraps surely won't do anything about it.
Total bullshit. The Repugs have been in control of Congress for 12
years. Bush has been president for six years. It's his war. He and the
GOP Congress are the fuck-ups. But they don't hesitate to give
multi-billion dollar tax breaks to the rich and pay billions to their
filthy rich corrupt corporate no-bid contract friends while they ignore
the families of our military.
You're almost ALWAYS wrong, Kevin. Isn't it embarrassing?
listentoairamerica
Neocons suc!
Kevin Z
It's not a tax break for the rich, John. Already tried to explain to
your simple mind, if poor people don't pay taxes, before, you can't give
them much of a break. simple math, John. And you know your against
the military, yet you parade around their shortcomings like it's the end
of civilitation. And yes the Republicans have improved the Military
dramatically.
Simple hypocrisy John.
And no I am not embarrased. Not Wrong either.
John Manning
Poor Kevin. You just aren't very bright. It's kind of futile to attempt
to actually communicate with you about stuff you 'believe' in your mind
to be true and isn't.