People are eating furniture. Yes, furniture. Right here in the good old U.S. of A.

[KamaAina]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-sequester-cuts-divided-the-winners-from-the-losers--including-head-start-children/2013/12/11/10811dcc-5c34-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html

When the sequester took effect, Head Start programs nationwide received no relief from Congress. They had to cut at least $401 million of their federal funding for fiscal 2013.

So then, the trouble found its way to a red-brick building in the Ohio River town of Owensboro, Ky.

Here, Grant runs a Head Start program that covers 16 counties and provided free preschool, free diapers and free food to 2,086 children. This is the rugged bottom of the federal safety net: A few weeks ago, a Head Start staff member took a parent permission slip to the Union County jail so a child’s mother could sign it behind bars.

Another mother once told her son to steal beanbags from the play area. The family cut open the bags and cooked the beans.

[shenmue]

1. Holy what?

Makes you want to hit your head on something.

[yodermon]

2. Time to re-up my DU star.. there is an ad for actual bean bags on this page as i read this.

laugh? cry? not sure.

[Agschmid]

17. Probably both.

[Jamaal510]

3. Hurray for U.S. austerity,

giving people the freedom to eat furniture and crappy food since the 1980s.

[rdharma]

4. They cooked expanded polystyrene beans?

That's what beanbags are filled with.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Yeah, my brain wobbled at that too.

I have no access to a bean bag to find out for sure, but it did not make sense they would use real beans. the damn thing would be too heavy.

[Thor_MN]

8. The article does not say beanbag chairs.

The "furniture" is purely the confusion of the person that posted the OP. The story talks about taking beanbags. Presumably used as toys.

[rdharma]

10. Beanbag toys are also filled with polystyrene pellets........

.... not real (edible) beans.

[Thor_MN]

12. Some are. Other are made with beans.

Polystyrene pellets are way too light for many uses of bean bags.

[KamaAina]

34. Okay, so people are eating toys, not furniture.

Does that make you feel any better about this country? It doesn't me.

[Blue_Tires]

13. Maybe the mother was being facetious in the interview

and the reporter thought she was serious??

That's the *only* explanation I can come up with....

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. I delted my earlier comment, and I got THIS from the reporter.

"Thanks for your email! It was not a bean bag chair: it was a bean bag, one of the little ones used in the children’s play area.
The folks at the Head Start program in Owensboro assured me that there were beans inside, and the beans were eaten."

He replied to my email.

[Raine1967]

18. I'm glad the reporter responded. Thanks for this follow up.

This makes it a little sadder. You are awesome for reaching out for a clarification, dixiegrrrrl!

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. even if I DID end up looking like a dope!

reporter was cool, tho, and I assured him I would forward his comment.

[Raine1967]

24. If you were referring to your deleted comment -- I didn't see it.

so I don't think you looked like that at all.

It's good for a clarification. I think the article could have done a better job of explaining it, but I would put money down that this was an editorial issue.

[Denzil_DC]

32. You have nothing to be ashamed of!

By making direct contact to check out the facts, you did more due diligence than many journalists (let alone bloggers) do nowadays, so you deserve congratulation.

[pnwmom]

6. Sounds like someone's repeating an urban myth -- bean bag furniture

would be too heavy filled with beans, besides attracting pests.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-bean-bag-filling.htm#didyouknowout

The bean bag is one of the oldest concepts for toys, with the simplest method of construction: a fabric bag filled with dried beans, and used as a doll or a ball. In the 1960s, the bean bag concept was adapted to furniture, and the bean bag chair has remained a favorite for kids' rooms and college dorms. Most bean bags today are filled with a variety of different synthetic materials to make them lighter in weight than their traditional counterparts. Bean bag filling is most commonly made of polystyrene beads, although other types of filling are available. You can opt for a natural filling for your bean bag, which saves you money while keeping our planet a little cleaner.

SNIP


If you're looking for green alternatives to foam beads for bean bag toys, there are many natural alternatives such as dried peas, beans, rice, or unpopped popcorn. Be aware that natural, food-based fillings may attract pests, and will need extra protection against moisture damage. These fillings may be too heavy for bean bag chairs, but you still have a green option: recycle items in your home. Styrofoam packing peanuts, a cut-up foam mattress topper, and even extra plastic grocery bags can be used to puff up your flattened bean bag chair. A quick look around your home or neighborhood will probably uncover many other materials that can be recycled to use in your chair, saving you money while protecting the environment.

[Thor_MN]

9. Why? the article didn't say anything about beanbag chairs...

The article said beanbags, as in, bags filled with beans. Likely used as toys.

[rdharma]

11. See reply #10 above.... nt

[Thor_MN]

14. See #12.

Not your fault that you bit on a mistake in the OP, but try reading the article before going off on wild tangent.

[rdharma]

16. I agree with the intent of the OP..... but putting silly nonsense in the article is not helpful.

"Bean bag plush toys do not contain beans. Their characteristic soft stuffing consists of two materials, which are plastic pellets and polyester fiber fill. The plastic pellets are made of either polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyethylene (PE), and they are produced by specialty suppliers. The polyester fiber is the filling commonly used for decorative pillows, comforters, some furniture, and many other products."

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/bean-bag-plush-toy#ixzz2nOpkSfyH

[Thor_MN]

20. No, you were originally talking about chairs.

Now, you are desperately try to validate your failed commentary. Give it one second of critical thought and ponder how a child is going to steal a beanbag chair? Why would a parent tell a child to steal plastic beads?

The article talked of bean bags, not bean bag plush toys. You can pull all the Google cites you want, it isn't going to change the fact that you waded into a person's misconstrued read of an article, didn't bother to read the article yourself and now are spending much more time than it would have taken to read the article, to defend your mistake.

[sabrina 1]

36. They children were hungry. THAT is the story. One in six American children go to bed hungry

every night.

Children in third world countries eat mud pies. Children in America are eating the beans from bean bags intended to be used as toys.

We should be ashamed as a nation. The fact that we are not and have the luxury of arguing over which kind of beans they ate, speaks volumes about where this country is right now.

Hungry children, in the richest and most powerful country on earth that spends billions on weapons of death and wars and torture and drones while their own children are hungry.

It should make people angry, but it doesn't seem to bother a vast majority of Americans at all. How sad.

[Thor_MN]

39. I agree. My response was to those that would make them stupid as well as poor.

I was not arguing what type of beans they were, but that they were beans, not plastic.

[The Straight Story]

23. Let me help you here about bean bags

Lots of folks don't buy them. They make them:

https://www.google.com/#q=best+beans+to+use+for+bean+bags

And what do they do with them? Well everything from using them to hold cameras steady to donating them to local groups (like churches where kids play with them, etc and so on).

Not everyone buys things pre-made from China

[rdharma]

27. They use beans to hold cameras steady?

I would think they would use a denser and heavier filler (like sand, etc.).

David A. Fahrenthold based his assertion on what is called "hear-say" information. A mother told the head start folks ..... who in turn told him.

I'm sure the mother wouldn't have fabricated this story to keep her child on the head start program. Right?

Sad in any case. But I'm not buying it.

[The Straight Story]

28. Yep, see here and elsewhere

http://photographylife.com/wildlife-photography-tips-use-a-bean-bag

Whether or not you are buying her story is not related as to whether or not it many bean bags do, in fact, use real beans (which is what you seemed to basing your view of the situation on).

Many places that help out poor folks rely on donations of toys for their waiting/play rooms. Bean bags are easy to make.

I have been in a few waiting rooms (like a dr's office) that have those little games where you toss a bean bag and play tic-tac-toe, and one could easily tell by the feel and weight they were real beans (and I have made a few in my day when my kids were young).

[jmowreader]

30. Bags of sand are much heavier than bags of beans

[xmas74]

38. I've never purchased a bean bag.

A bit of scrap and some dried beans, a couple of stitches and it's done. Way cheaper and uses materials around the house.

[Packerowner740]

21. Are those even real beans?

So sad

[bvar22]

22. The Sequester?... Just another SCAM?

Where did "The Sequester" come from?
Who voted FOR it?

NOTHING happens by accident in Washington.

So the Sequester is just another SCAM too?

Have you noticed that NOBODY is responsible for cutting Social Programs these days? Through this latest clever scam, no politician must face the Home Voters and admit that they cut Meals-on-Wheels, Head Start, closed Libraries, or the myriad other "social" programs that help the Working Class & The Poor.
It is always "The Sequester" that is causing it.

When you think about it, this is BRILLIANT Political Strategy to lend Plausible Deniability for the cutting of Social Programs to everyone involved, Democrats and Republicans.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023612281

[font size=4]"I didn't cut those programs.
Its not MY fault.
The Sequester did it!"[/font]


Nobody wanted it.
Nobody takes responsibility for it.
Nobody supported it.
...but here it is,
cutting up the Safety Net and Programs for the 99%,
and its NOBODY'S fault!
Brilliant!

NOTHING happens by "accident" in Washington.

[historylovr]

26. +1

[sabrina 1]

37. They are not going to get away with that. It IS their fault, every, single last one of them who

stood by and allowed it happen. Every one who did not do everything in their power to stop it.

From those who were actively involved in making it happen, to those who remained silent, they are all responsible.

It is shameful. But we had defenders, apologists, explainers, right here on DU airc.

If Democratic voters continue to vote the way they have over the past several years, knowing that nothing will change, for the better, then they too are responsible.

This country needs a huge shake-up and fast. Enough!

[BKH70041]

31. Euell Gibbons Revenge

[DemocraticWing]

33. That's not far from where I live, and even closer to where I grew up.

I went through Head Start as a child...it was definitely a huge benefit to me and a lot of other people I knew. I think I would have been OK without it (my family considered education to be a priority) but a lot of other kids would have started school a few steps behind had it not been for that program.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. so they weren't eating furniture - they were eating the beans in the chairs.

sad.