Re: Ozone-salvation Army Free Lunch Program

Dear Sun,

Names, ages and social security numbers are taken; a pass card is given. Ozone house workers do the cooking; volunteers. Friday's lunch was fruit salad, hot dogs with chili and kool-aid. It was spagetti one other day last week.

Two factors make this a hard program to swallow. 1) The usual Salvation Army condescension (i.e. I believe the Army works under the assumption that everybody can make it and there is no reason why not.) People always belie the "practicability and humaness" of the system, but the Salvation Army seems, to me, to forsake any meaningful responsibility for the "get your act together" stance, as if everybody had a job, there wouldn't be any problems. 2) The literature available at the check-in table: 1. The food program has been started to help you settle yourself in the community. This is only temporary help and we feel that if you haven't been able to locate something within five days, you should move to another community where you could find employment or, we would be glad to discuss your problem. Hence, the free lunch program should be called the "keep on truckin' program." But, how do you knock volunteer energies like Ozone People's? There probably is more to lose than to gain by knocking the program in the press, since it takes more resources than Ozone has to maintain a High energy program like this, and since it would probably take a larger commitment from Salvation Army; and a larger commitment from the community, which is definitely not imminent. There are a lot of hungry people and will be more. You know how summer is. I don't like the program's "Keep on truckin'" attitude.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel