
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 24, 1994                   TAG: 9412070046
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A30   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SOUL FOOD

AMERICANS are a generous as well as thankful people. Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger group, reports that more than 150,000 private feeding agencies in this country distribute $3 billion to $4 billion of food each year, using millions of volunteer hours.

All of this amounts to only one-tenth of the assistance provided by federal programs. Which suggests, at least theoretically, that Congress could wipe out the effects of all private donations to fight hunger by cutting federal food-assistance programs by 10 percent.

There is waste in any program, and money should be saved by eliminating it. But the public institutions of an abundantly blessed nation must take care not to take food from the mouths of children - or anyone truly in need.

Nearly a quarter of America's children live in poverty, a rate double that of any other industrialized nation. You don't notice any hollow-eyed, hungry kids on the streets? Both privately and publicly, we strive to feed them, as befits a bounteous nation more charitable than just.

by CNB