Trump squanders money on a parade instead of helping the needy

Concord, California – On Saturday, in the streets of Washington, Donald Trump will launch an expensive and ostentatious military parade, a light demonstration of waste and Vainglory organized only to inflate the Ego of master size of the president.

The estimated price: up to $ 45 million.

On the same day, White Pony Express’s volunteers and staff will do what they have done for almost a dozen years, taking perfectly good food that would be otherwise thrown and would use it to feed hungry and needy people living in one of the most comfortable and wealthy regions of California.

Since its foundation, White Pony has transformed and transmitted more than 26 million pounds of food – The equivalent of around 22 million meals – thanks to benefactors from the Bay region such as Whole Foods, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s. This represents 13,000 tonnes of food that would have been differently alleged in the discharges, rotten and issuing 31,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in our overheated atmosphere.

It’s so fair, you can almost hear the angels singing.

“Our mission is to link abundance and the need,” said Eve Birge, head of management of White Pony, who said that the guiding principle of the non -profit organization is the concept “We are a human family and when one of us goes up, we all go up.”

This mission has become more difficult lately when the Trump administration is taking a fake in the country’s social security net.

White Pony receives most of its support from companies, foundations, community organizations and individual donors. But an important part comes from the federal government; The non -profit organization could lose up to a third of its annual budget of $ 3 million due to discounts from the Trump administration.

“We serve 130,000 people each year,” said Birge. “It endangers a third of the people we serve, because if I can’t find another way to collect this money, we will have to reduce the programs. I will have to consider letting the staff go. ” (White Pony has 17 employees and around 1,200 active volunteers.)

“We are a seven -day operation a week because people are hungry seven days a week,” said Birge. “We talked about having to bring to five or six days.”

She did not comment on the great celebration of Trump, self -winner, a demonstration of Soviet -style military equipment – tanks, horses, mules, parachute horsemen, thousands of troops on the move – celebrating the 250th anniversary of the army and, oh yes, the president’s 79th anniversary.

Marivel Mendoza was not so reluctant.

“All the programs that are emptied and we use taxpayers to pay a parade?” She asked after a white pony delivery truck stopped with several pallets of fruit, vegetables and other grocery stores.

The organization of Mendoza, which operates from a small office center in Brentwood, serves more than 500 migrant agricultural workers and their families in the East East of the Bay region. “We are going to see hungry people at some point,” said Mendoza. “It is contrary to ethics and immoral. I don’t know how [Trump] sleeps at night.

Certainly not dizzy, or with its empty belly growled with hunger.

All foods processed at White Pony Express, including these peppers, are checked for quality and freshness before distribution.

(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)

Those who work at White Pony talk about it with a spiritual reverence.

Paula Keeler, 74, took a break in his recent quarter of the products to discuss the charity of the organization. (Each piece of food that passes through the door is verified for quality and freshness before being transported by truck of the warehouse and the White Pony Concord headquarters to one of the more than 100 community non -profit organizations.)

Keeler retired approximately ten years ago from a turnover job with a school district in the Bay region. She volunteered at White Pony in the past nine years, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

“It has become my church, my gymnasium and my therapist,” she said, while the rhythm and the pulsating blues played a portable speaker inside the large sorting room. “The Tuesdays, I deliver to two senior houses. They are mainly small women and they can go to bed at night knowing that their refrigerator is full tomorrow, and that’s what touches my heart.”

Keeler had not heard of Trump’s parade. “I don’t look at the news because it makes me want to vomit,” she said. Telly of the show and its cost, she responded with Equanimity.

“It’s a bit like the prayer of serenity,” said Keeler. “What can you do and what can you not do?” I try to stick to what I can do. “

It is not much in vogue these days to quote Joe Biden, but the former president said something that deserved to remember. “Don’t tell me what you appreciate,” he said. “Show me your budget and I will tell you what you appreciate.”

Trump’s priorities – me, mine – are the same as they have never been. But there is something particularly turned by the stomach in the tens of millions of dollars on a vanity parade while reducing funds that could help feed those who need it.

Michael Bagby has been volunteering at White Pony for three years, delivering food and training others to drive the truck fleet of the non -profit association.

(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)

Michael Bagby, 66, works part -time at White Pony. He retired after a career of piloting large platforms and began to make deliveries and to lead to white pony drivers about three years ago. His passion is the fishing – Bagby dreams of a submarine in a high high marlin – but no hobby can feed his soul as much as helping others.

He was aware of Trump’s pretentious competition and his price without attention.

“Nothing I say will make the difference, whether the parade continues or not,” said Bagby, settling in the cabin of a 26 -foot refrigerated box truck. “But it would be better to show an interest in the real needs of the country rather than by a parade.”

His route that day called for stops in a college and a church in the working class antioche, then for non-profit of Mendoza in neighboring Brentwood.

While Bagby stopped at the church, the pastor and several volunteers were waiting outside. The modest white stucco building was fringed with dead grass. The circulation of highway 4 nearby has produced an insistent and excited soundtrack.

“There are a lot of people in need. Many, ”said Tania Hernandez, 45, who heads the church pantry. Eighty percent of the food it provides comes from the white pony, helping to feed around 100 families per week. “If it was not for them,” said Hernandez, “we couldn’t do it.”

With help, Bagby has placed several pallets. He lifted the tailgate, fought in the huts and headed for the cabin. A member of the church approached and held his hand. “May God bless you,” he said.

Then it was at the next stop.