We are at our very best when we allow this to happen.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/PersonOfWeek/story?id=4123327

That's excellent!

Hope that young man does well in life.

Thanks Chris!

While I applaud this yound man, this type of law has been advocated in many states, and there are several problems, do you give the restaurant absolute immunity, because then you have the problem, since the restaurant can take a tax deduction for the donation, they might have some egg salad that is really too old, but are tempted to donate, then someone dies from eating the bad egg salad, they have no recourse.

If you add an intent clause, its a lawyers dream.

Hopefully those details will be worked out Nwokie so that everyone is protected.

To reiterate what missing said: Excellent!

They should do this nationwide.

Maybe to keep the temptation down from donating spoiled food, there shouldn't be a tax deduction.

Instead, maybe some kind of free publicity or something that would draw more customers in?

I don't know the answer, but I do know if the lawyers are kept out of it everybody will be better off!

I saw this last friday on ABC News and got this feeling that we are seeing a major political figure in the making. To keep the lawyers at bay maybe a rule needs to be added that states the restaurant or food service wanting to donate leftovers and waste must meet a 100% health inspection to partcipate.

I am a little bit pissed when I hear someone bitch about feeding other countries poor when we don't do enough to feed our own poor and hungry. This could spread like wild fire and come a long way to finally putting an end to the problem of feeding children from going to bed hungary and at the very least put a little bit of a dent in America's homelessness issues.

Its all about compassion and this kid realizes what most grown adults cannot.

With food stamps, WIC, AFDC etc there is no reason for any child or diasabled person to go hungry, unless the parents are spending the aid on something else.

As for able bodied people, they need to get a job!

As one who is guilty of presenting statistics on global hunger as a major moral issue, I do indeed want to see the hungry in our own country taken care of. We're talking about millions of American's many are children and women.

Even with all the programs already established each persons situation for being hungry, homeless or poor is different. Some do abuse the system, but just getting a job doesn't necessarily end poverty and hunger. There are the working poor.

This 11 year old kid is great and hasn't let adult skepticism stop him from making a difference.

I'm really interested in what influences brought the perspective necessary for him to act. Maybe we will get a life story, or something that tells us more about that.

Man, would be great to have an interview...

"With food stamps, WIC, AFDC etc there is no reason for any child or diasabled person to go hungry, unless the parents are spending the aid on something else. "

A bunch of talk from a conservative. Are you willing to pay more in taxes to enforce proper welfare and foodstamp usage and build more prisons? Hmm? perhaps cut the defense budget to make funds available? Hmm?

Instead of prisons, for low level offenders, they should be working on farms, etc then we don't need the illegal's.

And they could be easily monitored by embeded gps locators, and with a policy of, you don't work , you don't eat we solve two problems with one solution.

...Are you willing to pay more in taxes to enforce proper welfare and foodstamp usage and build more prisons? Hmm? perhaps cut the defense budget to make funds available? Hmm?

Actually, if they cut the abuse and "double dipping" and only gave the money to those who really need it, there would be no need to raise taxes.

I remember talking to our mailman at work when I lived in St. Louis. He said that there were many houses that he delivered to where the same person received multiple welfare checks and he know they were bilking the system, but he couldn't report it because it was an "invasion of privacy" for him to do so.

There needs to be serious welfare reform. If you are able to work, then there needs to be limits on how long you can get welfare before you have to get a job.

Or maybe something like having to work for your welfare check would be OK too.

I've no problem helping those who truly need it. But right now, once you are on the "system" there is no incentive to get off.

Ah good to see such compassion on our fellow human beings.

Thank God 11 year old Jack Davis has that compassion.

People out of work, and are actually looking for work, I am all for helping them. People setting back and drawing a govt check and spending it on beer and drugs, while their kids go hungry. I am all for locking them up for a long time.

Hey, maybe that kid will run for office some day.

Chris, beautiful isn't it? How did we arrive at this, "I have mine, go find yours." mentality anyway? It just does not work for me on any rational level. Ugh!

Nwokie, I actually agree with the labor bit. Putting people to work during their time served is, in my opinion, something we've moved away from that was a mistake.

It does not have to be horrible, like breaking rocks. There is literally a ton of stuff we could have people doing. As things stand right now, our penal system isn't doing anybody any real favors.

Punishment should almost always have an end game. It works the same way it does for kids; namely, the whole exercise pays back a debt owed, encourages the right behaviors, and maybe even comes with some empowerment and cleaning of the self.

Instead, we get people in there, mixed with a lot of other people, with little to do, and that's not gonna work out well for the majority of them.

Working farms, producing commodity goods for sale / distribution to those in need, building infrastructure (how many roads could we fix with these guys?), etc... All can and absolutely should be done.

All of that can lead to outside jobs, once peoples sentence has run it's course. Lots of crimes can be addressed, with some reasonable expectation of the criminal becoming a solid part of things again. IMHO, it's a crime not to do this!

Breaking rocks is appropriate for the really hard core, at least they will be tired, and less likely to make trouble.

You do realize I wrote, "it doesn't have to be something horrible", not "must not be something horrible", right?

"People setting back and drawing a govt check and spending it on beer and drugs, while their kids go hungry"

Agreed that is deplorable. The most innocent are often the most victimized.

Knowing the difference is where we need good judgment on what we term the "bad ones." Some cases are black and white and the kids need intervention, other cases are not so easy.

I have to tell you, when my daughter and I spent a day in downtown Portland with her classmates last year going from courtroom to court being introduced to our justice system, it was an eye opener. Almost every person in court had some kind of drug or alcohol issue. It was really sad. Middle aged dads with kids, young 20 something’s with serious attitude issues. You name it, it was there.

The few judges that handed down the sentences I saw did all they could to be fair and view the evidence properly. They gave some people one more chance, which they knew they didn't deserve. The one guy who owned up to his mistake didn't get off easy by any means but was given some leniency because of his honest mistake.

Lets not forget this important fact:

Most of the people on welfare are women and children. Major "revamping" of welfare isn't going to save much money. Stepped up enforcement will cost more money than it saves.


What we do need is a low-cost (or a cost-free) way weeding out true deadbeats. Feel like volunteering your time to monitor welfare receptants? I thought not.

Unfortunately its usually better (and far cheaper) to give the $$ to drug-using parents and HOPE they feed them than to remove the kids from the parents and place them under children's services.

At any rate, society isn't gonna pay for more enforcement when that money could actually go to feed another hungry child somewhere else.