What strikes anyone looking at the stolen photo op is how clean, organized, and empty this soup kitchen is.
Anyone who has actually volunteered in a place where homeless and those living in poverty are served meals by private organizations knows that it's usually crowded if not chaotic. Volunteers are everywhere; their well-used white aprons are stained and bedraggled.
Not in this photo. Here is Paul Ryan, in a spotless, shiny kitchen, scrubbing out a shiny, clean pot. Over there is tall woman with long, blond hair (no cap to keep the hair out of the food). She is dressed in fashionable all-black. Like Ryan, she is sporting a spotless, freshly ironed! white apron -- oh, and smiling in a leisurely way to someone off-camera. She is bringing the candidate yet another shiny, clean pot to scrub.
This was Paul Ryan "helping out" at a soup kitchen.
It is a fantasy. Here's the real story. Paul Ryan, known for his disdain for the poor, "'might have topped any previous callousness... when he and his staff apparently 'ramrodded their way' into a soup kitchen last week for a photo opportunity without even actually volunteering."
President of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, Brian J. Antal, told the Washington Post that he had no interest in making his organization a political talking point: “we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations… It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors… The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.” ...Think Progress
