Ferrero, the chocolate company that manufactures international favorites such as Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, is on track to reach over $10 billion in profits this year, making it the world’s third largest chocolate producer. This growth is especially impressive considering that in 2006, Ferrero’s turnover stood at only 5.6 billion. But in light of this news, there is a problem that Ferrero is still working on addressing: child slavery on cocoa farms.

It’s important to note that Ferrero is not alone in this issue. In 2001, leading companies of the chocolate world made a collective promise to eliminate child labor from their supply chain by 2005 but the year came and went without an end to abusive labor practices. The deadline was pushed back to 2008, then to 2010. Ferrero appears to be the only one of those companies that set a secondary deadline for the project. In 2012, Ferrero pledged to end slavery on the farms where it harvests cocoa by 2020. Other leaders in the industry followed this pledge, but chose to amend their commitment to reducing child labor in Ivory Coast and Ghana by 70 percent by 2020 (rather than eliminating it entirely). Ferrero made a bold commitment in 2012–but is it one that the company can feasibly deliver on? Read on for a look at the company and the controversy over eliminating child labor in the chocolate industry.

What is Ferrero?

History

In 1946, Pietro Ferrero invented a cream of hazelnuts and cocoa. Hazelnuts were a creative addition to confectionery during wartime rationing, which limited the use of chocolate. Together with his brother, he launched a company to sell the product, which was eventually taken over by his son, Michele. Michele re-branded the spread as “Nutella,” opening production and sales offices worldwide in the wake of World War II.

Nutella became integral to Italian life, even sponsoring the national soccer team for three years beginning in 1988. Nutella was central to the “Made in Italy” brand but Ferrero also operated the Ferrero Rocher line of pralines, Kinder chocolate bars, and Pocket Coffee chocolates. By the time of his death, Michele Ferrero had unseated Silvio Berlusconi as the richest man in Italy–he had a net worth of an estimated $23.4 billion. In 1997, Michele’s sons Pietro and Giovanni took over the company and ran the brand successfully, but after Pietro’s death in 2011, sole responsibility fell to Giovanni.

A Media Shy Chocolate Megalith 

The family was, and still is, private to the extreme. Michele Ferrero did not hold press conferences or engage at all with the media, even going so far as to block tours of the company’s factories.  Ferrero has cultivated an almost mystical brand reinforced by the control the Ferrero family holds directly over the recipe, the production, and the marketing of their products. Although the company is headquartered in Italy and operates largely from its base in Alba, it is still reliant on West Africa for cocoa. Nutella, interestingly enough, also relies on sugar from Brazil and palm oil from Malaysia, which means West Africa may not be the only place where brutal labor practices have been a concern.

Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry

The world’s largest chocolate producers rely on West Africa–especially the Ivory Coast and Ghana–for cocoa. The combined GDP for both countries is just a fraction of the billions of dollars in sales that international chocolate companies like Nestle pull down annually. Cocoa is generally produced by farmers living in extreme poverty, and child labor is common on the majority of cocoa farms. Children are often sold into slavery by their parents or kidnapped. The average work week can last from 80 to 100 hours and while working on the farms, these children receive no salary or education. The living conditions are brutal, as children are often beaten and rarely well fed.

Tulane University conducted a study in the 2013-2014 growing season that revealed approximately 2.1 million children were involved in objectionable labor practices on cocoa farms in both the Ivory Coast and Ghana. In 2015, three California activists filed a lawsuit against Hershey, Mars, and Nestle for not advertising that their products were made using child labor but the likelihood of that civil action suit coming to fruition is slim. This past September, Nestle commissioned a report from the Fair Labor Association (FLA) which presented the following results:

Researchers visit 260 farms used by the company in Ivory Coast from September to December 2014. The researchers found 56 workers under the age of 18, of which 27 were under 15…Researchers from the FLA, which was commissioned by Nestlé to investigate workers rights on its west African farms in 2013 amid international pressure, found child workers at 7% of the farms visited. Nestlé’s code of conduct prohibits the use of child labour in its supply chain.Though researchers found Nestlé had made substantial efforts to inform farmers about its code of conduct, awareness of the code was low among farmers, with farmers sometimes unable to attend training sessions due to either “lack of interest or time”. The FLA also found that farms lacked any kind of age verification system for workers.

Ferrero has not commissioned a similar report but because almost all of the major chocolate providers rely on the same farms within Ivory Coast and Ghana, concerns from critics allege that conditions are similar on its farms. Ferrero has called out for an end to child slavery and forced labor, but if farmers are ignoring that call to action, like those interviewed for the FLA report, then the company may not be on track to meet its 2020 goal.

 Conclusion

Ferrero has officially displaced Nestle to become the third largest chocolate producer in the world, which means that the company will be centered in the international spotlight like never before. The Ferrero family may have historically been secretive about their business to protect it from corporate espionage but that does not mean they should be allowed to be anything less than transparent when it comes to their labor practices. There are dozens of smaller chocolate companies that have successfully eliminated child and slave labor from cocoa production on their farms, and particular light is being shed on Ferrero (and other leading chocolate companies’) practices. The moment may have come for Ferrero’s leadership to divert attention and resources to reforming the cocoa farms behind their famous chocolate.

Resources

The Local: Italian Chocolate Giant Ferrero to Eclipse €10bn Turnover

Reuters: Michele Ferrero, Owner of Nutella Empire, dies at 89

CNN: Ferrero Sets Date to End Cocoa Slavery

BBC: News; How the World Went Nuts for a Hazelnut Spread

New York Times: Michele Ferrero, Tycoon Who Gave the World Nutella, Dies at 89

Fortune: Was Your Easter Chocolate Made with Child Labor?

Fortune: Inside Big Chocolate 

The Daily Beast: Lawsuit: Your Candy Bar Was Made By Child Slaves

The Guardian: Child Labour on Nestlé Farms: Chocolate Giant’s Problems Continue

The Huffington Post: Chocolate and Child Slavery: Say No to Human Trafficking this Holiday Season

Jillian Sequeira

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When she’s not blogging, she’s photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

The post Chocolate Company’s Growth Puts a Spotlight on Child Labor in West Africa appeared first on Law Street.

The idea of child labor in the United States sounds absurd. It’s 2015, after all. But the truth is that it’s more common than you may think, especially in the agriculture industry. The U.S. government currently has exemptions in place for the minimum age and maximum work hour requirements for child farmworkers. Hazardous work is prohibited until 18 in other industries, but notable exemptions exist for agricultural companies. Child farmworkers have high rates of injury, are exposed to serious health risks, and often receive few protections, particularly on tobacco farms. Read on to learn more about dangerous, but legal, child labor in the United States.

What is the Current Federal Law?

Loopholes in child labor laws for the agriculture industry stem from the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), last revised in 2007. For all nonagricultural sectors, the FLSA restricts the hours children under 16 can work and prohibits children under 18 from work that is considered dangerous. In those industries, for example, children cannot work more than three hours on school days or more than eight hours on nonschool days.

However, the rules are far more lenient for the agriculture industry. Children under 16 cannot work during school hours, but there are no maximum hour limits beyond that. There is also no limit for working after school or on weekends, and there is essentially no limit for child workers during the summer. Some states place additional hour restrictions on child employment in agriculture.

At age 16, children can perform hazardous work, like operating chainsaws, forklifts, forage harvesters, or power post hole diggers. They can work from a ladder or scaffolding at over 20 feet from the ground and may drive a tractor over 20 PTO horsepower. They can also handle or apply toxic agricultural chemicals and may also handle or use a blasting agent (i.e. dynamite, black powder).

With parental consent, children under 12 can work on farms where workers are exempt from federal minimum wage requirements. Children aged 12 and 13 can be employed with parental consent or on a farm where a parent or guardian is also working. At 14, children can work any agricultural occupation not deemed hazardous by the Secretary of Labor and 16-year-olds can engage in any agricultural occupation, even during school hours. Children of any age may be employed on a farm in any occupation at any time if a parent or guardian owns the business.

Minors do not need working paper or work-permits. Farm workers under 20 years old can be paid $4.25 an hour during the first consecutive 90 calendar days of employment. Lastly, farmworkers of all ages are not subject to the overtime provisions in the FLSA.

Tobacco Farms

In 2014, Human Rights Watch (HRW) conducted a survey, which found that child laborers on tobacco farms face harsh conditions and receive little protections. According to HRW, 90 percent of American tobacco is cultivated in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Although exact numbers remain unknown, thousands of child laborers work on these fields every year. Ohio Rep. Mary Kaptur and several British Members of Parliament toured a North Carolina tobacco farm last year. An article from The Hill summarized the report from their visit noting the “squalid conditions, lack of sanitation, hot water, flushing toilets and basic health services” that tobacco farm workers face. According to the HRW report, child laborers often work 50 to 60 hours a week in bad conditions and extreme heat.

Injury Risks

Machinery poses a real risk to child farmworkers. According to a 2013 study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the agriculture industry accounts for the largest number of work-related deaths. NIOSH reported that the fatality rate for child farm workers is four times greater than that of any other industry and that two-thirds of farm deaths occurred among children 16 years old and under. According to the study:

Young worker deaths in agriculture are noteworthy. In addition to accounting for the largest number of deaths of any industry, previous research has suggested that the fatality rate is about four times greater than for youth working in other industries [Barkume et. al. 2000, Hard and Myers 2006] and comparable to the risk for young and middle-aged workers in agriculture. Nearly 2/3rds of the deaths in agriculture occurred among youth less than 16 years of age [Windau and Meyer 2005]. Nearly 60% of the deaths of youth in agriculture occurred on family farms. Farm family workers accounted for nearly 25% of all young worker deaths from 1998 to 2002.

Human Rights Watch also reported that more than 1,800 children working on farms in 2012 received non-fatal injuries from  sharp tools and machines. In 2010, two teenagers died trapped in a grain bin. One 16-year-old Tennessee worker, interviewed by Human Rights Watch, remembered an incident saying, “I cut myself with the hatchet.… I probably hit a vein or something because it wouldn’t stop bleeding and I had to go to the hospital…. My foot was all covered in blood.” Another 16-year-old said that he lost two fingers in an accident involving a mower.

Health Risks

Another alarming aspect is the health risks that workers on tobacco fields may encounter. Child laborers under 16 may be free from operating the most dangerous machinery, but they are exposed to toxic pesticides and risk nicotine poisoning. You have to be at least 18 to buy cigarettes, but not to cultivate tobacco. According to Margaret Wurth from Human Rights Watch, “as the school year ends, children are heading into the tobacco fields, where they can’t avoid being exposed to dangerous nicotine, without smoking a single cigarette.”

Child laborers interviewed by Human Rights Watch also reported working while nearby field were sprayed with chemicals. These pesticides can cause cancer, damage to the nervous system, and issues with reproductive health. Public health experts  have linked nicotine exposure in adolescents with mood disorders and permanent cognitive deficits.

A number of the children interviewed by HRW exhibited signs of acute nicotine poisoning, also known as Green Tobacco Sickness. Side effects include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, loss of appetite, and sleeplessness. Others also reported difficulty breathing, skin rashes, and irritations to the mouth and eyes.

What is being done?

Recent attempts at reform have been futile. Although countries across the globe, like Brazil and India, prohibit children under the age of 18 to work on tobacco fields, the United States does not.

In 2011, during President Obama’s first term, former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis proposed banning workers under the age of 16 in the tobacco fields–ridding the FLAS of many of its exemptions. Her plan included stricter regulations for “agricultural work with animals, pesticides, timber, manure pits, and storage bins.” It also proposed safety measures for young farmworkers.

However, powerful opposition from farm conglomerates emerged. Montana Representative Denny Rehberg lamented the consequences when “big-city bureaucrats try to craft policies for rural America.” Farmers also complained that it would prevent their children from contributing to chores, even though Solis suggested an exception regarding farmers’ children. State legislators responded by drafting bills asking respective Congressional delegates to oppose the proposed changes to child labor exemptions. The successful lobbying campaign resulted in all the proposals being dropped and the Obama administration promising to abandon the issue indefinitely.

Another legislative attempt to help child laborers is Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard’s Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act). Initially introduced in 2001, the CARE Act has been reintroduced in several sessions of Congress over the past decade, most recently in June. The CARE Act standardizes child labor protection in agriculture with every other industry.

Not only would the CARE Act revise current child labor law exemptions, it would increase and establish criminal penalties for child labor violations. The bill currently sits in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The Children Don’t Belong on Tobacco Farms Act, co-authored by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, is the most recent attempt to alter the current laws. Although the bill doesn’t prohibit children from tobacco fields, it limits the type of work that can be performed. Children under eighteen would be banned from direct contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leaves. Like other legislation attempting to reform these laws, the bill has not moved past its assigned committee.

Conclusion

The evidence shows that dangerous child labor conditions are not exclusively third world problem– it is prevalent here in the United States. Although multiple attempts at reform have been made, they have either failed or stalled in Congress. Significant progress could also be made without major changes to existing laws. Removing exemptions for the agriculture industry could create uniform standards for the employment of children in all industries. However, such efforts seem unlikely to succeed as powerful interests have managed to block recent efforts.

Resources

Primary

Human Rights Watch: Child Workers in Danger on Tobacco Farms

U.S. Department of Labor: Child Labor Requirements In Agricultural Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act

Trade Union Group: A Smokescreen for Slavery

Additional

The Atlantic: How Common Is Child Labor in the U.S.?

CNS News: Farm State Outrage Intensifies Over Labor Dept. Proposal to Ban Children From Doing Some Chores on Farms 

Congress.gov: CARE Act of 2013

The Hill: Back to School – Or Back to the Fields? 

The Hill: Democrats Want Children Off Tobacco Farms

The Nation: Child Labor in the USA

NCBI: Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Nicotine Exposure during Adolescence for Prefrontal Cortex Neuronal Network Function

NIOSH: Health and Safety of Young Workers

The United States Department of Labor: US Labor Department Proposes Updates to Child Labor Regulations

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to clarify the history of the CARE Act.

Jessica McLaughlin

Jessica McLaughlin is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in English Literature and Spanish. She works in the publishing industry and recently moved back to the DC area after living in NYC. Contact Jessica at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Do Child Farm Workers Have Enough Protections? appeared first on Law Street.

If you ask most Americans when slavery ended, they would probably answer…well, most Americans probably wouldn’t know. For the more informed citizen however, the answer would likely be in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation, or more accurately still in 1865 with the passage of the 13^th Amendment, which explicitly outlawed the practice in the United States. Both of these answers are incorrect, however. That is because even today there are an estimated 60,000 people living in slavery in this country. Furthermore, according to the same Washington Post article, worldwide that number balloons to a staggering 30 million people, with those in less developed countries being much more susceptible to the illicit practice. To fully comprehend how this heinous enterprise–that most presume is finished–can still exist and worse yet thrive, it is necessary to first understand something very fundamental: What exactly is modern day slavery?

Slavery as an Institution

History 

Slavery began at the birth of civilization and has continued in one form or another since then. The foundations of western culture were built on the backs of slaves as both Greece and Rome relied heavily on their human machines. This continued in Europe after the fall of these empires through the dark ages, the renaissance, and reformation. It was also a central aspect of colonialism and imperialism.

But while Europe and by association its colonies, which had slaves before Europeans arrived, may have the highest profile accounts of slavery, the practice was global. In the Middle East slavery was already in place at the time of the ascendancy of Muhammad and continued from the seventh century until the twentieth.  In fact it wasn’t until 1982 that Mauritania became the last country in the world to publicly abolish slavery. Even with this ban, Mauritania is still the country where citizens are mostly likely to be slaves, with about four percent of the population being classified as such.

Slavery was also an established institution further east. China, one of the oldest civilizations, had slaves for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the 1950s when the last acknowledged slaves could be found in isolated mountain areas. Slavery was a major institution in India, as well.

Even in Africa slavery existed long before Muslim or European slave traders arrived; however, unlike those two groups, African nations rarely imported non-Africans as slaves. Regardless, while the means and exact roles of slaves in society may have differed, in virtually every corner of the globe slavery has been an ingrained practice for millennia.

Modern Day Form

Thus the concept of slavery strictly being a product of the antebellum American south is inaccurate, but the reality of it being a global issue is not. Furthermore, the definition of slavery today is also not some stretching or reclassification of the accepted term. Modern slavery means being owned and controlled as property by another person through either physical or mental threats. Slavery can take many forms. Some of the most common forms include forced prostitution, forced agricultural or domestic work for adults and children, and families being forced to work for nothing in order to pay off generational debts. While these are modern forms of slavery they are also traditional, in fact the only thing that has changed is how slavery is seen publicly, namely if it is seen at all. Below is a video that describes further the conditions of modern day slaves.

Those Most at Risk

Throughout history slave groups have often been made up of people for a specific reason such as ability to work long hours, exotic appearance, a particular type of skill, or as a result of conquest; however, slaves today are increasingly likely to be found at the margins. This is in stark contrast to when slaves were well-known members of the household and in certain cases in old Islamic Caliphates could have children that one day might even aspire to the throne.

In this way then slavery has changed most dramatically. Long gone are the public slave auctions. Instead today slavery is a much more under-the-radar practice of a group on the fringe of society. This group often includes children or migrants who are either tricked or forced into slavery when they are young or if they move.

The problem can be exacerbated by a number of other factors, as well. Ethnic divisions is one example; a historical legacy left by imperialists in sub-Saharan Africa has led to one of the highest rates of slavery in the world. Another is wealth or more accurately the lack of it. In Haiti, for example, children may be sold into unofficial slavery by their parents as a means of income. Yet another is cultural; in India–the country with the largest estimated slave population at roughly 14 million–the legacy of the caste system remains and can prevent authorities from preventing cases of slavery.  The video below offers a greater breakdown of the victims of the modern day slavery system.

First Responders

Thus there are many factors to consider that have led to the continuation of slavery worldwide. There have, of course, been many efforts globally to end the practice. Currently in every nation on the planet there are laws on the books forbidding slavery.

The problem is though that these laws are ineffective. To combat slavery then, the mantle again rests on non-governmental groups as it has since the first abolition movements. Since the passage of laws forbidding slavery is no longer the end goal, this patchwork of groups now has its sights focused on other means of ending this practice.

Steps to Freedom

Probably the most important step to ending slavery is raising awareness. While this may seem naïve or practically unhelpful, slavery today is a forgotten issue. To many it is a battle that has already been fought and won and thus no longer bears consideration; however, as these groups stress, to the forgotten 30 million people who struggle under the guise of slavery every day, it is still an urgent issue. Furthermore while the value of a modern day slave is hard to calculate by anyone other than the owner, the fact that slavery exists shows that certain people or groups are profiting off of it.

Along this same vein, once awareness had been raised it is also crucial that governments are required to actually enforce their anti-slavery laws. This could include creating an agency or task force specifically charged with finding and preventing slavery as other agencies such as the FBI or FEMA exist to handle specific problems.

Once awareness and enforcement have been improved it is also necessary to cultivate the people who were formally slaves. This means providing food, shelter, and teaching basic skills to people who often had nothing else to turn to and became slaves out of necessity. This would also help prevent a reoccurrence of these individuals falling prey to the same crime again. Below is a video that highlights some of the things that can be done to combat modern day slavery.

These steps and actions are already being implemented by these groups. In fact, the United Nations has already spoken of some success with governments more strictly enforcing their laws and businesses enacting tougher measures that would prevent the enslaving of workers at any level of production. However, as a practice that has existed for thousands of years, slavery will not just vanish overnight. Thus, it will take time and additional resources; however, without solid and immediate gains combined with an existing general lethargy, slavery is likely to endure.

A Problem With No End in Sight

Although slavery has been and is still a global problem, the suffering is not equal. A person in a developed country with a high per capita income is less likely to be a slave than his or her opposite. Furthermore in wealthy countries, slavery has long been taboo. Many western countries for example began abolishing slavery in the early nineteenth century. Thus countries with the greatest ability to end the practice may feel the least inclination to do so.

While there are many solutions to the slavery problem, so far none has gained enough traction to bear much fruit. While groups in the West and other places come to grips with the consequences of the slave societies of their past the same trade is still being employed right under their noses. Although slavery today may not be as much of a concern as it used to be, for the people affected by it is as real as it has ever been. While the correct way to stop slavery remains elusive, what is important is that the continued existence of slavery be at the very least acknowledged. This is vital because only after admitting slavery is still a problem can it then be addressed.

Resources

Primary

U.S. Constitution: Thirteenth Amendment

Additional

Washington Post: This Map Shows Where the World’s 30 Million Slaves Live. There are 60,000 in the US

New Internationalist: A Brief History of Slavery

National Geographic: How We Can End Slavery

Slavery Injustice: Slavery in Ancient China

UN News Centre: UN Officials Urge Concerted Action to Eradicate Modern Forms of Slavery

Anti-Slavery: What is Modern Slavery

Michael Sliwinski

Michael Sliwinski (@MoneyMike4289) is a 2011 graduate of Ohio University in Athens with a Bachelor’s in History, as well as a 2014 graduate of the University of Georgia with a Master’s in International Policy. In his free time he enjoys writing, reading, and outdoor activites, particularly basketball. Contact Michael at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Ending Modern Day Slavery appeared first on Law Street.

Another day, another frenzy-inducing H&M designer collaboration. Last week, the long anticipated Alexander Wang x H&M collection hit stores and online. Shoppers lined up nearly 24 hours beforehand, merchandise was immediately posted on Ebay–you know, the usual.

But amid all the excitement for the coveted sportswear with the word “Wang” emblazoned across the chest, a controversial video was released, as well. German website Dandy Diary created what it called a “promotional video” in which they went to India to see how the collection was made. In the video, child laborers are sewing Alexander Wang x H&M logos onto apparel. Even though the video is meant to be an “art piece” it still raises a lot of questions considering the fact that both Wang and H&M have been accused of using sweatshop labor in the past.

Back in 2012, Wang settled a lawsuit filed by 30 workers who claimed they were forced to work in poor conditions for 16 hours at a time without breaks. Never mind the countless child labor accusations that Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M has received over the years.

H&M has since responded claiming that the collection was not made in Indian factories but rather in China, Turkey, and Italy, and that the company does not support child labor; however, we still don’t know whether or not this is exactly true. Just because this video is supposed to be an “art piece” doesn’t mean that we should laugh it off and move on. Despite the fact that thousands of people died last year alone when the Rana Plaza factory collapsed, Bangladeshi factories still continue to breed poor working conditions. Obviously major retailers such as H&M are not pulling through on making sure that such a tragedy never happens again. While it may be difficult for both the companies and any U.S. law enforcement to keep track of what’s happening overseas, these retailers need to start taking responsibility for any third-party labor that they employ. Perhaps they could send corporate employees to serve as a liaison between the two.

It’s also worth noting the hype surrounding these coveted limited edition collaborations. Twenty-four hours after the collection was released, only some of the items were sold out online (though whether a full size range was available, I’m not sure). Even the items posted on Ebay were not extraordinarily marked up. If anything, it’s more about being the first one to get your hands on the collections first; kind of like when people wait in line for the new iPhone when they could just as easily get it shipped to their house that day.

What better way to further feed into the hype than to release a controversial video shining a spotlight on something that’s been speculated about in the past? Such a video serves as a way to get both Wang’s and H&M’s names in people’s mouths, ensuring sales not only for this current capsule collection, but for any of either label’s future business as well.

Political correctness be damned, apparently.

Ed. Note: The original version of this article included an embed of Dandy Diary’s blog, which has since been removed by the creator. Read a Dandy Diary’s comment on the video’s removal here.

Katherine Fabian

Katherine Fabian is a recent graduate of Fordham University’s College at Lincoln Center. She is a freelance writer and yoga teacher who hopes to one day practice fashion law and defend the intellectual property rights of designers. Contact Katherine at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Don’t Ignore the Alexander Wang x H&M Child Labor Video appeared first on Law Street.

Happy Thursday, folks! You’re almost there. Breathe with me. Friday’s coming.

In the meantime, let’s get to our biweekly session of bitching about the GOP, shall we? Today, we’re talking about school lunches. And poor kids. And how Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia is a gigantic asshole.

Here’s what happened. Across the nation, kids from families whose income levels are below 130 percent of the poverty line can receive free school lunches. Kids from families with income levels between 130 and 185 percent of the federal poverty line are eligible for reduced lunch prices. This is news to no one.

Trust me on this. My awesome wife teaches in Newark, one of the poorest cities in New Jersey. Literally all of the kids at her school get free lunch. Free lunch for low income kids is nothing new.

Said no one.

Anyway! Rep. Kingston decided to make news out of something that’s not new — a common talent for many GOP rainmakers. This week, he went on the record saying that poor kids should NOT get free lunch — oh no! The blasphemy!

Instead, he made the following suggestions:

“Why don’t we have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch? Or maybe sweep the floor of the cafeteria — and yes, I understand that that would be an administrative problem, and I understand that it would probably lose you money. But think what we would gain as a society in getting people — getting the myth out of their head that there is such a thing as a free lunch.”

Oh my gosh I CAN’T. I cannot. What are you doing, Rep. Kingston? Really.

Friends is on my level today.

Let’s start with the first and most obvious issue with your solution to a non-problem: children are not possessors of money. They don’t work. That’s what being a child means. So, really, they all get free lunches. Every single one of them. Even the richest of rich kids are getting a free lunch. Because it’s not their money that paid for it. It’s their parents’ money.

Take me for example. I was a solidly middle-class child. My parents, being the health nuts that they are, were not big fans of the idea of me eating mystery meat in my elementary school cafeteria. So, every day, they dutifully packed me a brown bag lunch. I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread and a handful of cookies, virtually every single day. For me, that lunch was free.

I didn’t pay for it. I didn’t even know that food cost money. Or that when my parents went to work, they were paid in money. I kind of just thought working was a thing that grownups had to do — the same way kids had to go to school — and all of the other stuff like food and housing was just magically bestowed upon people who followed the rules.

Baby me did not understand how much this leather jacket probably cost my big sister.

Clearly, I was a naïve child.

But! There was a kernel of truth in my naivety. For me, food really didn’t cost money. It just appeared in my brown bag every day, as if by magic. Nowadays, as a precariously middle-class adult who has to purchase food before it lands in my brown bag (I’m still packing a whole wheat PB&J for work, I’ll admit it), I’m fully aware that food was free when I was a kid.

I’m even more aware of it when my now gray-haired parents take me out for lunch.

My reaction whenever my parents invite me out to dinner.

Anyway! All children get free lunch. They aren’t working the night-shift to pay for their sandwiches. So, your argument is already inherently flawed, Rep. Kingston.

Moving right along. What is this obsession with punishing poor people for being poor? Seriously. The GOP is fixated on it. When you suggest forcing children to sweep the floors in order to earn their lunch, you’re talking about child labor. That’s bad enough, but when you’re only suggesting the poor kids participate, you’re talking about a caste system.

You’re talking about a world where rich kids learn early on that only certain people sweep floors. Namely, not them. You’re teaching them that someone else will always clean up after them. Someone else will always have to beg for their scraps.

Then, you wind up with kids like this boy, who killed 4 people because of pathological rich kid syndrome.

And, you’re teaching the poor kids that they’re the ones who need to beg for those scraps. Because of the social standing of their family — which they have zero control over — poor kids will understand themselves to be inherently less than. That’s a traumatic and debilitating lesson to learn at such a formative age.

Finally, there’s the looming issue at hand — the solution that Rep. Kingston is obviously hinting at, but isn’t explicitly articulating.

He’s saying that it would be better if these kids didn’t get a free school lunch at all. If we HAVE to give it to them, at least make them work for it, he’s saying. But really, his best case scenario is equally expensive lunches for all.

Folks, this is a classic case of a Republican who lacks empathy. It’s an alarmingly common quality among headline-making GOP’ers.

Where my wife teaches, all of the students qualify for free lunch. Every single one of them. These kids are poor. They don’t have the luxury to grow up naïve like I did. They know food costs money because they don’t have any of it. As in, neither food nor money.

For many of her kids, lunch is the only meal they eat. They hardly eat at all on weekends. Why? Because they’re poor. They can’t afford food. And the little food they do have at home, they give to their baby brothers and sisters.

My wife’s students are good kids. They’re smart and loving and talented, and hysterically funny. And they deserve to fucking eat.

So, Rep. Kingston? Shut the fuck up.

Stop talking about child labor, and a (not really) new caste system, and the idea that poor kids shouldn’t be fed lunch on the school’s dime. Stop talking out of your ass, and start feeding some children.

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Hannah R. Winsten (@HannahRWinsten) is a freelance copywriter, marketing consultant, and blogger living in New York’s sixth borough. She hates tweeting but does it anyway. She aspires to be the next Rachel Maddow.

Featured image courtesy of [Philippe Put via Flickr]

Hannah R. Winsten

Hannah R. Winsten is a freelance copywriter, marketing consultant, and blogger living in New York’s sixth borough. She hates tweeting but does it anyway. She aspires to be the next Rachel Maddow. Contact Hannah at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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