Episode Report Card Sara M: F | 4 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Dorothea Lange Spins In Her Grave
By Sara M | Season 9 | Episode 19 | Aired on 05.01.2005
The bell rings at Glenoak High. Kids walk through the halls. A well-kept-looking young lady who can apparently afford to dye her hair orange and have her eyebrows shaped walks up to the camera and looks right at it. She speaks: "My parents both work, they pay their bills. After Friday's school lunch, I don't eat again 'til Monday's school lunch. During the weekends, when I get really hungry, I just try and go to sleep." Then she tells someone off-camera to "wait up" and takes off. Bye, random person who totally doesn't look too poor to afford food all weekend!
A guy with styled hair walks up to the camera, sighs, and says that his family has been on the food stamp program since Dad left. "I don't take food for granted anymore," he says, and walks away. Thanks for sharing!
Another girl tell us that her family "survived on cheap processed food because [they] couldn't afford good food." Yeah, well, welcome to college, blonde girl. And probably your early to mid-twenties. Possibly even late twenties. Blonde Girl says that all that American cheese and bologna made her get bad grades because she was "tired." But then her aunt, who was probably sick of being asked for handouts, told them about the food stamp program, and now they have good food all the time! Plus, the food stamp program offers nutrition classes, and her mom learned how to cook! "Now, I'm pulling a B average!" she says, smiling. Hormel Foods doesn't smile as they contact their lawyers to file a huge lawsuit against 7th Heaven for its unproven statements against their products.
Another kid approaches the camera and says that he eats at his friends' houses as much as possible, and borrows money from them for food. But he doesn't pay them back, and he doesn't tell them that he needs the money for food, "so...[he's] running out of friends." Hungry AND unpopular! Don't you feel especially sorry for him?
Another girl starts to approach the camera, but drops all her school stuff on the floor, her arms apparently weak from hunger. You'd think that the middle of what is supposed to be a serious scene wouldn't go for the slapstick comedy, but you'd be wrong. The girl bends over to pick her stuff up and tells us that her family is very proud, and won't ask anyone for anything. She stands up, having gotten her supplies together, and continues that her brother and his family moved in after he got in a car accident and "had to quit" his job. Whatever injuries he sustained apparently affected the part of his brain that remembers that you can get disability if you're unable to work. How sad. The girl says she tried to get her parents to get food stamps, and even did some research into government programs (apparently she did not see the program that gives DISABILITY PAY), but her parents refused to accept any help. Girl says her parents say that education is "the most important thing," to which she says, "Hello? Try going to school on an empty stomach!" Not so hungry that she can't be indignant, she rolls her eyes and scoffs. Maybe she should try selling her gold necklace, or not spending so much money on whatever dental care is giving her such perfectly white and straight teeth, or laying off on the three pounds of lip gloss, if she's so upset.