Episode Report Card Sara M: F | 5 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Dorothea Lange Spins In Her Grave
By Sara M | Season 9 | Episode 19 | Aired on 05.01.2005
RevCam arrives home, where he finds Ruthie sulking on the back steps. He takes a seat beside her, and she says that he was right this morning about her being nice to people. "You never know what someone's going through, you know?" she says. RevCam says he does know, because Allan told him about his family's deal. Ruthie says she never thought that there were people who go to bed hungry except for the people she sees on the street or in the church's feed-the-homeless line. That's people she sees in those lines, not serves, as, despite her great empathy and sadness, Ruthie does not volunteer at a soup kitchen or food drive. Lucy and Mary did once, because they were forced to, and then Mary got a husband out of the deal, but other than that, we've never seen this supposedly Christian family do much when it comes to good works. The exception to this rule is Lucy during her Habitat for Humanity phase, and when Simon rid Glenoak of that awful druggie kid. "Over nine and a half million people in the United States will go to bed tonight wondering how they're gonna feed their families tomorrow," RevCam PSAs. Ruthie asks how this could be -- doesn't America have enough food for everyone? How could a country with so much have so many people in it with so little? According to this episode, it's because all the poor people keep spending their limited resources on luxuries. RevCam says that it's because poor people are too ashamed to get food stamps. Also, adds Very Amateur Sociologist RevCam, there is and has always been a stigma attached to being poor, and we must all work together to overcome it. You'll notice RevCam doesn't say anything about the actual causes of poverty and working to eradicate them. That's because it's a much more complex issue than just making up some crap about why people don't want food stamps. "But in the meantime," RevCam says; "there is help." Take it away, Black Screen Of Information!
For more information on the food stamp program, call 1-800-221-5689, or go to the food stamp website at www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/. Zoe's family will be accessing the website from their brand new iMac G5 with wireless internet and Bluetooth capability. They had to buy a new computer after Zoe passed out from hunger and knocked over their last one.