Congressman Womack tells Food Banks to STFU

BlueToTheBone

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Wed Nov-16-11 10:59 AM
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Congressman Womack tells Food Banks to STFU

Volunteers from one of our local food shelves travelled to Washington DC recently to meet with Senator John Boozman and Congressman Steve Womack. The purpose of the visit was to provide our representatives with information about the operation of the Loaves and Fishes, Flint Street, Harvest Assembly, and Bethel food shelves.

Instead of listening to these volunteers, Congressman Womack lectured them. He said local charities and government needed to treat food shelf users like "a college kid who misused the family credit card. You need to cut up the card," he said. "You need to figure out how to fund these programs locally because the Federal government hasn't got any more money."

Steve Womack, like John Boozman by the way, supports a bill that would continue subsidies to corporate farms that report more than $1,500,000.00 in annual revenue. In Arkansas, these subsidies amount to about $10 billion dollars since 1995. Most farm workers working on these operations make so little in wages that they qualify for food stamps; Womack wants to cut funding for that program too.

I work at Loaves and Fishes, the Berryville food shelf, every Friday. This past Friday, November 4th, volunteers from First Christian Church Berryville served 56 families from Green Forest, Eureka Springs, Oak Grove, and Berryville. I did client intakes which involves checking eligibility. It is important that we make sure that people using the food shelf are authentically in need.

http://www.carrollconews.com/blogs/1250/entry/44452

I am so disgusted and appalled at the callous disregard from Womack (R- of course). His daddy has a hate speech radio station (KURM) and between the 2, they are the devil's handmaidens.

There is an antidote of course. It takes work and courage and money (please give generously to his Drive for 35 Money Bomb!) It's Ken Aden. www.Aden4Arkansas.com. Donate through ActBlue or however you can! Here's Ken's response in an email.

Womack Serves The Needy A Slap In The Face
Carroll County News Report Shows Womack Out Of Touch With Economic Conditions In The Third District

RUSSELLVILLE—Less than three weeks before Thanksgiving, a time when many in Northwest Arkansas don't have the luxury of sitting down to a dinner table fixed with typical holiday trimmings, Congressman Steve Womack (R-Rogers) has shown yet again how out of touch he is with the economic realities facing families in the region by likening food pantry users to college students abusing their parents' credit cards.
According to a published report in the Carroll County News over the weekend, Womack told volunteers from a local food pantry who traveled to Washington, D.C. to provide their elected representatives with information about the operations of local non-profit food distribution centers that charities and local governments needed to treat users of these services like, "a college kid who misused the family credit card. You need to cut up the card," Womack reportedly told the group.
"I'm blown away that anyone could be as inconsiderate and as out of touch as Congressman Womack," said Ken Aden, Democratic candidate for Congress from Arkansas' Third District. "The people who are using area food pantries aren't like kids on those credit report commercials buying pizza for their entire dorm floor. They are out of work, thanks in part to the kind of job-killing free trade agreements supported by Congressman Womack, and looking for a hand up, not a hand out," Aden said. "Clearly, Steve Womack is so out of touch that he doesn't realize that many families in the Third District are having serious difficulties putting food on the table," Aden continued. "Yet, instead of working to create jobs in the district, Womack is attending fundraisers for Herman Cain and attacking the poor. That's despicable," Aden said.
"I know first-hand how difficult these food pantries work to ensure that the less fortunate in our district have enough to eat. As someone who organized and ran a non-profit organization right here in Arkansas, that's something I'm intimately familiar with," he noted."
Aden noted that it wasn't surprising that Womack was so out of touch. "Forty-four percent of the households in this district have a combined household income of less than $40,000 per year. Womack has made more than twice that every year while on the government payroll, first with the city of Rogers and now as a Congressman. His taxpayer-funded salary helps insulate him from the real concerns facing residents in the Third District," Aden concluded.