Editorial: Ain’t nobody here but us chickens

Issue of Feb. 13, 2009 / 19 Shevat 5769

The Senate and the House of Representatives are hammering out a compromise version of the economic stimulus package. The apparent goal is a vote and passage by Monday, President Obama’s deadline.

The Senate's version of the legislation was valued at $838 billion, and the House version at $820 billion. The final version could top a trillion dollars.

Hopefully, most of it will be spent on meaningful ways of jumpstarting the stalled economy with a minimum lost to nonsense inserted by pinhead lawmakers who can't see past an opportunity to bring some cash home to their constituents.

Those breathtakingly large numbers have a great deal in common with a much smaller number — 50,000 — the number of pounds of kosher chicken and turkey products that Empire Kosher Poultry will generously donate to the Met Council food pantries in 2009.

What the numbers have in common is that each, in its own way, highlights the enormity of the economic crisis we face, and the human toll it is taking.

The gargantuan stimulus numbers speak for themselves: a proposed federal spending spree to utterly dwarf last year's most ambitious daydream of a tax and spend liberal, or the most horrific nightmare of a tax-cut conservative.

Meanwhile, the poultry being presented to the kosher food pantries sounds like a lot — and it is a lot for a single company to donate, with an estimated value of, perhaps, $150,000 — but in reality it will hardly make a dent in the extreme need that has developed in recent months.

The food pantry in Far Rockaway is only able to give most clients two or three bags of food at a time — once every two months. Obviously, those people — more and more of whom are younger and formerly middle class — have to eat during the other seven weeks until their number rolls around again. Where does the food — and the money to pay for it — come from?

The federal government is trying to do its part. Empire Kosher is doing its part. We hope to see other companies that service the kosher market follow Empire's good corporate example, but within our communities every individual must also remember to continue giving as well, even as we tighten our own belts in anticipation of what may still be to come.

In that regard, ain’t nobody here but us.