Paul Ryan's Soup-Kitchen Stunt Backfires: Donors Pushing Back vs. Right-Wing Backlash

I was unhappy, but not surprised, to read recently that Paul Ryan's soup-kitchen stunt had brought grief to the Youngstown, Ohio, soup kitchen in which he staged the photo-op stunt that showed him and his wife washing cookware that didn't need to be washed.  To make it appear that he and his wife are intently concerned to assist the hungry and really do care about the poor . . . . 

When Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent de Paul Society, which sponsors the soup kitchen, told the national media that he was unhappy with Ryan's uninvited and politically motivated intrusion into the soup-kitchen's ministry, conservative donors began yanking funds from the soup kitchen--and therefore from the hungry people the kitchen feeds.  That story is discussed in this Huffington Post article by Meredith Bennett-Smith.

But as Bennett-Smith also notes, Fark, an online news aggregator, has now organized a campaign to gather funds to assist this soup kitchen and overcome the punitive backlash of conservative donors who were unhappy to see the whistle blown on Mr. Ryan and his use-the-poor political stunt.  Bennett-Smith's article provides a link to the Fark initiative.  The link to which I've just pointed you provides further information about various ways in which you can assist the soup kitchen, if you choose to do that, including the option of donating directly to St. Vincent de Paul.

As of the time I'm posting this piece, the Fark page is reporting it has already gathered $15,177, exceeding its initial goal of $10,000.