Monday, May 19, 2008

The Troubling Rise of "Dollar Menu-naires"

McDonald's chief: Menu calorie rules are 'flawed'

McDonald's Chief Executive Jim Skinner took a jab Sunday at regulatory efforts to force calorie counts onto restaurant menus, and told those gathered at a restaurant industry trade show that they are facing a "perfect storm" of challenges...

With growing regulatory mandates, a slack economy, soaring commodity costs and increasing labor-related issues, "it's a perfect storm," Skinner said. "I don't have to tell you that times are tough."


So Jim Skinner doesn't "have to tell you that times are tough"? Boo-Hoo! I haven't experienced such ill-advised belly-aching since I had the new number 8 meal—with two apple pies (only $1!)—for dessert.

Something tells me that in these rough economic times, we may have more "Dollar Menu-naires" than ever. Poor folks buy food at McDonald's and other fast food joints because it's cheap and quick. And they can't afford to make good food consumption decisions, even if they have the tools and the education to know how to make those good decisions.

Our public schools and harsh socio-economic conditions have failed to prepare the poor to succeed. I would be interested to take a poll of McDonald's customers in a poor community to see how many of them know what trans fat means, what saturated fat is, what fiber is, etc. I'd also like to see how many of them have a bank account, know how auto loans work, know how to balance a household budget, and know how to save or invest for the future. I'd like to know how many people reading this post even know. Did you learn those things in school? I sure didn't. Luckily I had wise family members and friends to get me started understanding such things.

How many poor neighborhoods even have easy access to cheap fresh produce? And how many poor people have had a stable enough home environment to even learn how to prepare healthy foods?

We are very lucky in this country that on average, U.S. households spend 12.8% of their income on food accoding to the most recent data ("Consumer Expenditures in 2005," Bureau of Labor Statistics, Page 4), which means we have some of the cheapest and most abundant food in the world. But we have a woeful record when it comes to lifting up our less fortunate neighbors and giving them a shot at the good lives some of us have. More than 10% of American households suffer from low or very low food security ("Household Food Security in the United States, 2006 / ERR-49," Economic Research Service/USDA, Page 4).

It's not all McDonald's fault. It's not all the poor's fault. It's not all the government's fault.

I get sick when the proud individualism of our citizens turns into a callousness that borders on outright hostility to the poor. Whether you believe it's the government or the "evil" corporations or the churches or the secular-humanist nonprofit organizations or the poor themselves that should be responsible for helping the poor is irrelevant. We need comprehensive solutions to help our struggling brothers and sisters.

Most of all we need to have a heart.

As Dan Gibbons, executive director of the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation, recently said in an AP story, "The bottom line is, a mother trying to feed her kids is not really picky about what she puts in their bellies. She just wants them full."