Do you know what four things I never thought would go together? KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Food Stamps. Somehow, I thought that when it came right down to what offerings we’d give to the poorest among us, fast food items just wouldn’t be on that list. Apparently I’d be wrong — so very wrong since Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is lobbying to allow their restaurants in Kentucky, America’s seventh most overweight state, to accept food stamps.
Kentucky would be the fourth state in the U.S. to allow such purchases, along with Arizona, Michigan, and California. Surely this is a painfully obvious culture statement about the status of our society, yes? Well, no. According to WalletPop.com, here’s the thought process Yum! is using, “Many homeless SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients, as well as those with unstable living conditions — say, those who are sleeping on the couch of family or friends, or who are living in cramped and insufficient quarters — don’t have a place to prepare food. And, the theory goes, it’s better to let them buy fried chicken and Quarter Pounders than candy bars and cold burritos from a convenience store.”
We think it’s a win-win,” Paul Carothers, Yum! Brands’ vice president for government affairs told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “It’s obviously of interest from a business standpoint, and it provides access to the elderly homeless and disabled who are often underserved.
We’re sure Yum! would tell us that they’re less concerned about their business interests and more worried about ensuring that the underserved have a hot meal — not necessarily a good, nutritious meal, but just the bare minimum, the obesity-courting, heart disease-celebrating, diabetes-encouraging bare minimum. In effect Yum! is willfully overlooking the negative cycle that exists when you combine low income households and poor nutrition. How children who are raised in households in which they receive low-quality food are more likely to be poor themselves, in addition to suffering from diet-related diseases and struggling in school. The bottom line seems to be that above all else maybe new Yum! customers will become Yum! customers for life into the next generation and the generation after that, making millions upon millions of dollars.
Unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult to provide decent food options to the most vulnerable among us though governmental assistance, which would include providing better access to fresh foods, and allowing food stamps to be used at farmer’s markets and community gardens, i.e. something that makes some sense. Sadly this is a fight food-policy activists are having trouble winning. And this certainly won’t help the cause, since it appears to be an easy solution to a much larger problem. The Consumerist notes comments made by clinical dietician Tim Gustafson.
If government can afford to subsidize big industries – and let’s face it, allowing fast food places to accept food stamps is ultimately a subsidy program for the corporations who own them – it can also show some support for small produce farms. Our taxes would be well spent by keeping healthy nutrition affordable for everyone and by investing in our local agriculture at the same time. Food stamps should be made welcome at all farmers markets and urban farms.
And when addressing the role of government, we can only assume that this lobby could create excellent fodder for partisan politics, since the Republicans already believe that cutting assistance programs is beneficial for the country. However, Yum! brands seems to think that instead of eating azaleas, poor Americans should choke on their own artery plaque.
Conversely, one person actually has a really great idea Yum! should consider.
Rev. Gerome Sutton, the leader of the African American Think Tank, told the Courier-Journal that the proposal stands to drive up costs of healthcare in the state rather than make a real difference for the hungry.
“If Yum really wants to help,” he told the paper, “they should create a restaurant with only healthy food.”
Hmm, what an interesting idea.
What do you think? Should fast food restaurants be allowed to accept food stamps?
