Soup kitchens too fancy?

In the government’s byzantine kajillion-dollar stimulus package, around $150 million is set aside for food banks and soup kitchens. Politicians agree we can’t have people starving in America.

Nobody’s really arguing against helping to feed people, but some are worried that it’s become too much of a good thing — that our nation’s homeless are becoming pampered by high-falutin’ soup kitchens. One of these people is Julie Gunlock, who yesterday penned an editorial entitled “Let them Eat Arugula” in which she complained that the nation’s homeless are eating better than her:

A recent meal served at the Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND) kitchen in Pacoima, Calif., included pumpkin

soup seasoned with browned butter and sage, red-wine barbecue beef on

handmade puff pastry, artichoke hearts with meatballs marinara,

roasted-garlic-and-turnip mashed potatoes, all topped off with fresh

blueberries and sour cream. No wonder these places need a bailout.

As several bloggers have already pointed to, MEND is completely privately funded and not receiving a bailout check. But Gunlock has another, bigger point.