A Place At The Table

A Place At The Table

DVD Documentary
It is incredible that in what is supposedly the richest nation
in the world there are fifty million people who don't get enough to
eat. If a foreign power hurt even a small fraction of this amount of
citizens our government would be up in arms. But because it's
something America does to her own, some in power are even making
things worse. Governor Paul LePage, for example, works on cutting
SNAP rolls by imposing more regulations.
It's easy to be numbed or overwhelmed by statistics. It can be
too easy to blame the hungry, especially when people like Governor
LePage talk about the undeserving poor, insinuating that if they
weren't lazy or popping out too many babies they'd be fine. It's way
too easy to shrug it off as not my problem.
I think everyone beginning in middle school and high school
should watch A Place At The Table. You get to see families including
their children who don't know where their next meal is coming from.
You'd have to have a heart of ice to see a little girl talk of nights
when there's nothing for supper or the mother of a toddler telling of
not being able to get food stamps for having $2 too much and not feel
angry. I think more people and groups would give to food pantries and
grow a row for the hungry and reach out to people in their communities
if they could see the problem up close and personal.
The DVD also talks about larger problems like food deserts where
fruits and vegetables aren't available, food stamp amounts that aren't
adequate, and farm subsidies that make processed foods cheaper that
nutritious foods. At one point a series of presidents told about the
need to combat hunger while the numbers showing the rise in hunger
during their presidencies was in the foreground.
Hopefully A Place At The Table can get people angry enough to
demand real solutions to this national shame and tragedy.
On a personal note, I am really getting the itch for the growing
season to start. I want to be at Orono Community Garden planting and
spreading compost and weeding so we can be giving big bags of organic
veggies free to the people who need them and bringing home the extras
to enrich our diets.
A great big shout out goes out to John and Shelley Jemmison who run
the community garden and all the volunteers who will once again join
us in this crucial mission.
jules hathaway


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