three blogs: Detroit Free Press: Keep welfare going so obese Detroit kids don't starve or something

An editorial from The Detroit Free Press: Summer hunger pains, campaign sponsors step up

A brutal economy and cuts in public social programs have taken a huge toll on southeast Michigan, with more than 300,000 low-income children receiving free or reduced-price meals in school. When school is out in summer, those meals are gone, and the twin problems of hunger and poverty become even more critical.

Unfortunately, people's needs often rise when government has the fewest resources to meet them. This year, state government cut programs for poor people and further eroded the safety net communities rely on.

The good news is that corporations are picking up some of the slack for school-age children in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. The Charter One Foundation, Hiller's Markets, Hollywood Markets, Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car are partnering with Forgotten Harvest and Gleaners Community Food Bank -- Michigan's leading hunger relief agencies -- to raise $500,000 and provide an added 2 million meals this summer.

So is the freep here unintentionally admitting that the private market can do better than the government in meeting the nutritional needs of the poor? YOU BETCHA! If these private entities are doing this good in a time of recession, imagine how well they'll do in times of plenty of the government just got out of their way!

But back to the premise I had in the headline - how is it that the freep is lamenting cuts in food programs when Detroit is known to have overweight/obese kids? It's kind of like this:

From just a few short years back: Fattest cities in USA - Detroit, Houston...

1. Detroit
2. Houston
3. Dallas
4. San Antonio
5. Chicago

As I have mentioned several times before, around 20 years ago when I was a graduate student, I volunteered a lot of time to Focus Hope in Detroit delivering boxes of food to the needy. Two things I learned: 1) Homes owned by old people smelled really, really bad and everything in the homes were ancient. 2) Homes owned by welfare recipients universally had top-of-the-line tvs, stereos and cable tv or dishes. All welfare recipients that I saw were obese. Every. Single. One. So not only were they able to overfeed themselves, but had money left over for many modern conveniences. For the record, starving children look like this:

You will not see such a sight anywhere in the US, a country where having ac is quite absurdly a human right.

UPDATE: Via Instapundit:

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY: Anti-obesity programs fail, so feds try again.