The Anchorage Republican Women's Club Declares War on Hungry Kids

It takes a special kind of villainy to see hungry kids and think, 'Nah, let’s make this worse.' But the Anchorage Republican Women's Club (ARWC)? Oh, they’re up to the challenge.

Yesterday, the ARWC decided to take a public stance against—checks notes—feeding children. Sitting in on a House Education Committee meeting, ARWC President Judy Eledge was horrified—horrified—to hear discussions about increasing funding for free school breakfasts and lunches. Her take?

"Perhaps people shouldn’t have children if they can’t afford to feed them. Is that really our job?"

Yes. Really. She said that out loud. In public. On the internet. Where people could see it.

The backlash was immediate. Turns out, telling poor kids to starve isn’t the winning message ARWC thought it would be. So, like cowards who realize they’ve said the quiet part way too loud, they edited the post—swapping out the overt cruelty for some half-baked concern about budgeting. But the internet is forever, and receipts were secured. You're welcome.

ARWC's post depicts an honest picture of Alaska Republicans' worldview: If you’re poor, you deserve to suffer. If your kids are hungry, that’s a you problem. Of course, this is the same deranged MAGA crowd that demands forced births and seeks to ban abortion at every turn. So, to recap: You must have the baby, but once it’s here? No help. No food. No safety nets. Just thoughts & prayers and bootstraps.

The hypocrisy is so thick you could spread it on toast. Just don't, you know, give the toast to a starving kid.

For those who prefer facts over ARWC’s cruelty, let’s break this down:

✅ Hungry kids struggle in school. Studies prove that when children have access to nutritious meals, their academic performance improves.

✅ School meals reduce stigma. When every student eats for free, no one has to feel singled out for being “the poor kid.”

✅ Families need relief. Inflation is at 3% and climbing under Trump, wages are stagnant, and food costs have skyrocketed. Free meals ease financial burdens, allowing families to focus on rent/mortgages, healthcare, and other essentials.

But sure, let’s pretend feeding kids is some outrageous luxury instead of basic decency. As one commenter to my post pointed out:

"A child goes to school hungry, no fault of their own. That child probably can’t learn much that day or any day they are hungry in school. So the test scores are down—good job, governor and Republicans. You got your wish."

By the way, it's worth noting that Judy Eledge is a woman whose entire political existence can best be summed up as a series of unhinged Facebook rants brought to life. Whether she’s demanding the creation of a white group, calling indigenous peoples racist, working to dismantle public education, or advocating for starving children, one thing remains consistent: she always chooses the worst possible stance.

Maybe Judy should take a couple of her own gummies—might help with whatever condition keeps making her post garbage takes and then scramble to edit them. Or better yet, the ARWC could do us all a favor and take away her posting privileges. If they don’t actually believe what Judy says, why keep letting her be their public embarrassment-in-chief?

Judy and the ARWC can edit their posts all they want, but we all know they speak volumes about what they believe: They do not care about kids. They don’t care about education, they don’t care about families, and they definitely don’t care about solutions. Their only consistent belief is that struggling families should struggle harder.

And the next time they try to pretend otherwise, I'll be here to remind them.