A Free Lunch For Kids In Need

The Other America: When Even A Sandwich Is Welcome Help For A Family

(CBS)  Crystal Hamilton is taking her four kids and her niece out to lunch.

“Here they get a little more than I can give them at home,” she said.

Which is to say, not much - a fact that hasn’t escaped her 12-year-old daughter, Kayla, CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports.

“Have you noticed times getting tougher for your parents?” Doane asked.

“Yeah,” Kayla said.

The Hamilton kids, along with more than 100 others, go to a park on most summer days. But at their park, the jungle gym is not the main attraction.

“How many of you came here to have the lunch program?” Doane asked.

“All of us!” the kids said.

Because in Waukesha, Wisc., there is such a thing as a free lunch.

Five days a week, Salvation Army staff and volunteers hand out bag lunches to kids who might otherwise go without.

“When you see all these kids lining up for food, what goes through your mind?” Doane asked.

“Just that, you know, if we weren't here, there'd be a lot of hungry kids in this community,” said Salvation Army volunteer Rachel Fjelling.

“Milk is almost four bucks a gallon now, that's the same price a gallon of gas is. So you decide, what do I want? The milk? Or do I need the gas for the car?” Hamilton said.

It’s a choice they don’t have to make these days. The car doesn’t work, and they can’t afford to fix it.

Hamilton was laid off from her job in an accounting office last January; her husband, O.B., lost his job as a commercial driver around the same time. He’s now cleaning carpets for roughly half of what he used to make.

“I don't have no discrimination on what jobs I take - if it pays, it pays,” he said.

But it doesn’t pay much - the family lives on less than $20,000 a year.

“How much time do you spend thinking, worrying, about money?” Doane asked.

“Ahh, phew… at least 80 percent of the time,” O.B. Hamilton said.

“People that are well off, where they both have a mini-mansion and cars and stuff, they don't understand how it is to struggle. They just don't,” Crystal Hamilton said.

But the Hamiltons do. They need government assistance to rent part of their house and to feed their family.

“We've tried our best to get ourselves off of the housing, we've tried our best to get ourselves off of everything we've been using. But it's just gets harder and harder,” she said.

O.B.’s even taken up hunting - for the sustenance.

When he’s out hunting, is it sport, or is it more serious? Is it putting food on the table?

“Putting food on the table,” he said.

But this spring’s rain flooded their basement - and ruined last season’s catch.

“This is the freezer here,” Crystal Hamilton said. “It was stacked all the way with venison.”

“Does it feel like sometimes you’re getting hit and hit and hit?” Doane asked.

“Yup, yup, yup - it's like there's no escape,” O.B. Hamilton said. “Right hook here - and left hook there.”

The Hamiltons are quick to point out that plenty of others have it worse - but when an extra sandwich is a welcome relief, they know they don’t have much.

[barbaram99]

I hear that. I feel that beer and cigerettes are out and not bought. Ye go to a mission and the bums are smoking. A pack is about 6 or 7 dollars..I don''t smoke or drink. I was a fostor child years ago. I have a love/hate thing with Mum. I never had kids for the reason I could not care for them. So I feel for them. Children and adults need to eat. It is high today. Years ago it was better. It is kind of those who make the lunches for the poor. It is something to eat.

[jijalagi]

ov422 %u2014 I will give the shirt off my back to someone who needs it, and have. I don%u2019t mind helping anyone up, but I won%u2019t hold them there. If someone is able to work they should get to it. People like the Hamiltons who work and really try to make it, deserve some help to get back on their feet. People who sit around all day drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and are generally too lazy to do anything, need to lose their children so the kids won%u2019t have to watch Mom and Dad starve.

[ov442]

Posted by jijalagi
If The Republicans get their way, it''ll be just like this poser wants it... Ten Times the number of struggling poor with no jobs, no way to earn money and nothing but republicans profiteering like the criminals they are.
And of course, posers standing there in front of the Hamiltons.... Clapping for them, and patting them on the back.."good job, way to go, show those kids how you can successfully work your way through tough times.. you Go! Hamilton family, and 25million new families just like you every year!" "If it wasnt for us Republicans where would you be? We made you what you are! Tough times heck, those rotten Democrats made us raise that pesky minimum wage!, heck we''da had you working for a PROUD $3/hour with no benefits if we could!" "You go walk home now to your boxes and remember, ...with hard work, you TOO can be rich dirty people like us one day and join the GOP!"

[jijalagi]

I left home way too young. Suffice to say I had little choice. I remember stealing a bag of potato chips for supper. I remember sleeping in the doorway of a school. I remember being sick, tired, wet, cold and hungry. Wanting to die, and almost did.

When I see kids suffering even a little bit it makes me sick inside. If their parents sit around drinking and smoking while the kids don%u2019t have everything they need, I get mad. I get even madder at a system that won%u2019t do anything to help.

Anyone can hit hard times. Working through it isn%u2019t easy. It wasn%u2019t for me either. It can be done. To those who try, I wish luck and success. To those who don%u2019t care, I hope your kids are able to get past the hell you make for them.

[jijalagi]

If Obama, Feinstein and others get their way Mr. Hamilton won%u2019t be able to hunt to put meat on the family table.

Good luck Mr. Hamilton, sounds like you%u2019re trying. Don%u2019t give up. At least you can show your kids how to work through bad times. That lesson may serve them well at some point in their lives.

[barbaram99]

I hear ye,I do. What really pisses me is you go in a store and the like they toss away food that could feed persons. I asked them why. I have seen them do it. We have to toss it at the end of the day. I am appalled. Oh yes. Don''t forget them fancy rich dinner affairs, I buy a sandwich or a pizza once in a blue moon. Yep. I ''member when eats were way cheap. I am 53.

[jijalagi]

There are only a few charities I give to. Red Cross ain%u2019t one of them. Salvation Army has been for a long time. They get my vote as one of the truly benevolent organizations in America. I%u2019m not Christian, but I give to them anyway. They have my respect, which isn%u2019t easy to get.

A lot of folks get in dire straights through no fault of their own. A lot jump in with both feet. They can%u2019t support their families but they can afford beer and cigarettes. I feel sorry for their kids, not them.

[mswolfestock]

Hey, y''all -

Remember what happened to Marie Antoinette when she was told that her subjects were starving, and they had no bread to eat?

She said, "Let them eat cake."

She and the other French royals and rich elites lost their heads on the guillotine when those starving peasants revolted. They were emboldened by the outcome of the American Revolution, wherein the colonists rose up against King George.

I don''t think it will be too much longer before food riots (and worse) become the norm in this country.

We are only a few small steps away from anarchy and a total breakdown in our society because too many people are hungry and without hope or dignity.

People who own enough land to raise their own food will be the eventual suvivors, and I expect they will have to defend their food with their lives.

[Gary Kempf]

This is a sad but accurate fact more and more Americans are facing everyday.

[harp1963]

"Divitiae, si affluant, nolite cor apponere,"

Josemaria Escriva

[barbaram99]

Ever had to eat at a mision ye know soup kitchen. If not yer lucky. If They get a sandwich I bet they are grateful for it.

[anecdote1]

I''d double check the tomatoes on that BLT...

[libsluv2spit]

not bad for an oppressive facist country ..huh?? liberals

[anecdote1]

There''s no such thing as a free lunch.