The NGO issue

So this is my understanding of why we, a food pantry in a small town outside of New Orleans, do not have enough food to adequately provide for families that come to us looking for help.

Second Harvest Nola is a Louisiana food bank that provides food to over 200 different agencies, one being our food pantry. Second Harvest is not a government agency but it does receive funding from the government, making it a NGO (non-governmental organization). Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal has been working hard to balance Louisiana’s budget, and part of his plan is reducing the amount of NGO funding. Unfortunately Second Harvest got caught up in the budget cuts. This excerpt from nola.com of republican House rep Brett Geymann makes a good point.

“I have concerns with getting rid of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) across the board,” Geymann said, pointing out that some of the organizations financed in the state budget that Kennedy would cut include volunteer fire departments, food banks and the Special Olympics.

It seems to come down to a basic political issue: Some people want the government to spend money on services, some people don’t. But either way you come down, maybe there are a few core organizations that are deserving of government funding. What do you think?