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Chapter 15. The Negro in the Public Economy 363
or independently. There was great unevenness in the apportionment of this
aid among various states. Some states in the South used but little of it.
Mississippi, on the other hand, gave this aid to almost one-fifth of its
population. There, as well as in certain other Southern states, federal sur-
plus commodities were actually the mainstay of the whole relief system.^®
This surplus commodity program may fulfill a real function when used
for the purpose of supplementing other relief. In the South, however,
surplus commodities are often used as the only form of assistance to families
in great need. In such cases, of course, they are totally inadequate. The
program may even be harmful, then, in that it provides an excuse for not
organizing more efficient aid.
The food stamp plan and the school lunch program constitute more
rational and better organized attempts to supplement ordinary relief,
improve the dietary standards among low income people, and increase the
market for agricultural commodities. Just as there is no reporting about how
many Negroes and whites are receiving surplus commodities, there is little
or no information on how many Negroes there are among the millions of
children who eat their school lunches at federal expense every day or on
the extent to which food stamps are given and sold to Negroes. Yet these
activities include some of the most significant attempts that have ever been
made to raise the health standard of the people j
and we ought to know
whether or not the Negro has received his just share of these benefits, of
which he is in such great need.
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