'A Place at the Table' makes a persuasive case for why millions are going without food
In a country with an overabundance of food, why are there an estimated 49 million Americans who do not know where their next meal is coming from? 鈥淎 Place at the Table,鈥� a documentary directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, seeks answers by going directly to the people involved 鈥� Washington lawmakers, authors, economists, and, above all, the people who are hurting.
We first meet Rosie, a grade-schooler in rural Colorado whose family of seven, because its income exceeds the annual limit of $28,000 per family of four, doesn鈥檛 qualify for food stamps. Her teacher is at first perplexed as to why she is so unresponsive in class until the obvious hits home: Although Rosie does not appear markedly malnourished, she is chronically hungry.
The film makes the point that in America we don鈥檛 think a child is severely hungry unless he or she looks like a skin-and-bones sub-Saharan sufferer. But all body types can qualify. In fact, as Raj Patel, the author of 鈥淪tuffed & Starved,鈥� says, hunger and obesity, so often founded on cheap carbohydrates, are closely linked. 鈥淭hey are both signs of insufficient foods you need to be healthy.鈥� (A staggering statistic: By one estimate, 1 in 3 children born in America in the year 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes.)
Many of the hungry are too proud to talk about it. A Colorado policeman, whose job can鈥檛 fully support him, describes his experience procuring necessities at a food bank. Rosie鈥檚 mother, who waitresses, can鈥檛 afford vegetables for her family.
The filmmakers make a persuasive case that the lack of availability of fruits and vegetables in these 鈥渇ood desert鈥� communities is a direct result of corporate greed. Why incur the cost of shipping these nutritious, perishable foodstuffs to outlying regions when you can maximize your profits selling to the big chains?
Nearly $20 billion in corporate farm subsidies are awarded by the US Department of Agriculture annually, of which 70 percent goes to the largest and most centralized farms 鈥� the ones with the most clout and the ones that, thanks to cheap subsidies, produce the corn, soybeans, and wheat that underlie so much of the junk food we eat. Much of this argument was elaborated in an earlier documentary, 鈥淔ood, Inc.,鈥� also a production of Participant Media.
In addition, 鈥淎 Place at the Table鈥� attempts to provide an overview of the history of hunger in America. The survey is simplistic and scattershot: We are told that farm subsidies came about in response to the Great Depression; that the 1968 CBS documentary 鈥淗unger in America鈥� put the crisis on the map; and that by the late 1970s, with the introduction of food stamps and the school lunch program, hunger in American had been 鈥渧irtually eradicated.鈥�
Then came the big bad 鈥�80s and hunger returned with a vengeance. The culprits: tax cuts, the rise of corporate welfare for agribusiness, the decline in social programs, and the rampant belief that the hungry did this to themselves 鈥� and that the churches and the charities and the genius of the free market system could right these wrongs.
Obviously the situation is far more complex than this pr茅cis suggests. (Anybody who thinks hunger in America was 鈥渧irtually eradicated by the late 鈥�70s鈥� wasn鈥檛 looking very hard.) And yet the central thesis holds. As actor Jeff Bridges, who is interviewed extensively in the film, says, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 fund our Department of Defense through charity.鈥� Bridges, who has been active since at least the early 鈥�80s in the anti-hunger movement, is the national chairman of the Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry campaign. He gives a good name to celebrity activism.
鈥淚f another country was doing this to our kids, we鈥檇 be at war,鈥� he says. For those who do not respond to the moral arguments for ending hunger through greater governmental involvement, he also echoes the sentiments of so many other commentators in this film: A malnourished population is a security risk. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about patriotism,鈥� he says. One thing is clear from 鈥淎 Place at the Table鈥�: You cannot answer the question 鈥淲hy are people hungry?,鈥� without also asking 鈥淲hy are people poor?鈥� Grade: B+ (Rated PG for thematic elements and brief mild language.)
