Emanuel's 'Personal Responsibility' Doesn't Extend To Buying Soda With Food Stamps
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jun 21, 2013 9:20PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was one of 17 mayors across the country who signed a letter sent to Congress earlier this week suggesting the government look at limiting the subsidizing through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program of sugar-sweetened beverages that contribute to obesity and diet-related diseases.
The letter, which was sent to address proposed cuts to the SNAP program that were defeated in Congress Thursday, read, “It is time to test and evaluate approaches limiting SNAP’s subsidization of products, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, that are contributing to obesity,” and was signed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, in addition to Emanuel.
This is a turnaround from Emanuel’s stance on removing pop from vending machines in City Hall or limiting the size of soft drinks people can buy. In each instance, Emanuel cited “personal responsibility” for not joining with his peers in making “nanny state” decisions.
It is worth noting that Emanuel was more than willing to let the city participate in a “wellness challenge” against San Antonio pitting municipal workers from each city against each other, funded by a $5 million grant from the American Beverage Association Foundation, the lobby for the soft drink industry. That group’s CEO, Susan Neely, admitted there were ulterior motives at the time.
“We think these kinds of things are gonna get a lot further faster than bans or fights over discriminatory taxes, which there is research after research which says they will not work,” Neely said. “They will not change behavior. Even if you would mark up a product or tax it 100 percent, you’re not gonna reduce body mass index.”
Funny that Neely mentions “”behavior,” because there are programs that teach people who receive SNAP assistance how to eat healthy and stretch how far their food stamp assistance goes through smart shopping and planning. Programs like Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters campaign teach people on SNAP assistance just that, through specialized courses for families that also help to ease the stigma of receiving food stamps. Hell, if Emanuel, Bloomberg and Menino were that concerned about how the government can help stop people on food stamps getting fat on candy and pop, all they needed to do was look at the USDA’s website, where they would find a page containing several links on how to shop smarter, stretch their assistance and eat healthy.
The Tribune writes Emanuel’s philosophy of “personal responsibility” doesn’t extend to poor people. Maybe if the sodapop lobby broke open its piggy bank and got behind this, he would change his mind.