The clements foundation. Park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The herb alpert foundation, supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The bernard and audre rapoport foundation. The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. Anne gumowitz. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The hkh foundation. Barbara g. Fleischman. And by our sole corporate sponsor, mutual of america, designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Welcome. The summer blitz of blockbuster movies has arrived. Super heroes or lesser mortals with excellent motor skills are here to save the earth from super villains, asteroids, aliens or other disasters, natural in nature but probably induced by global warming. Yes, its another summer of excess and escapism with the thrills and chills of hollywood scaring us down to our popcorn, yet always with a happy ending. Meanwhile, back here in the real world, where we actually live, the best film of the summer isnt an epic tale of horror or adventure but an eyeopening, heartmoving and mindexpanding reminder that millions of people in this richest country in the world, working men and women and their children, dont have enough to eat. The films called a place at the table, and its one of the best documentaries ive seen in years. Almost 50 million americans thats one in six receive food stamps. And yet recently, the house of representatives wrestled over a farm bill because members of congress continued to fight over how many billions to slash from the Food Stamp Program. In the end, they got the farm bill through by stripping food stamps out of it completely, to be voted on some other day. But once again, we heard all the cliches about freeloaders who are undeserving of government help, playing the system and living large at the expense of taxpayers. This movie, a place at the table, breaks those stereotypes apart and shows us that hunger hits hard at people who work hard to make a living. Dont miss this one. Its real life. With me is kristi jacobson, one of the films directors and producers. Youve seen her work on public television, hbo, abc, lifetime, and other tv networks. Mariana chilton is here, too. She teaches Public Health at Drexel University and is director of the center for hungerfree communities. Shes also founder of witnesses to hunger, a Group Featured prominently in a place at the table. In this excerpt from the film, we meet a rancher and a Police Officer in colorado, each struggling to make ends meet. Believe it or not, they have to rely on the charitable food programs sponsored by the church of a local minister, pastor bob wilson. About a month ago we had three officers, including myself. But however, due to budget constraints, were now down to just me. It was always kind of a prideful thing that i never needed anybodys help. Unfortunately, i havent received a pay raise in four years, and what i used to spend on a month in groceries, now gets me about two weeks. I have utilized pastor bobs food bank. The way it makes me feel, its very humiliating. Well, i correct that. Its not humiliating. Its very grounding. The stereotype of food banks is always for the unemployed or the disabled, people that cant go out and get a job. Thats not always the case. Sometimes in life you just get to points where you need a little extra help. Ranching is a good part of life. Its a lot of work, but its an honest actually, its an honest trade. But the way the economy and everything has gone south, i have had to go find another job out of the house. So i work on the ranch from 7 00 in the morning till 3 00 in the afternoon, and then at 3 00 in the afternoon till 11 00 at night i go down and clean the school. Its a good job. Its close to home. Theres a lot that you worry about. Your kids is the main one. And thats part of the reason i did take a second job, is so i can help buy groceries and put food on the table for my kids. Come on, dogs. Welcome to you both. Thank you for having us. Thank you. So, a cop who doesnt make enough money to meet all of his food needs and a cowboy who has to take two jobs to help feed his children, are they truly representative or was this just a filmmakers good luck . Sadly, theyre not the exception, in fact theyre very representative. When we were making this film, we traveled all over the country. And again and again met people who were working and trying to make ends meet but were not able to put food on the table. So i think what the sort of filmmakers luck or hard work paid off in that these are people who might not be willing to share their story. But we filmed in collbran because it was a town where the pastor, bob, was working really hard to remove that stigma that people feel around admitting and then getting help. And so that helped us because we were welcomed into the community. And, you know, i remember the first time i met the police chief. And i met him first on the phone, and then in person. And then i thought, hes probably not going to share his story oncamera, but its still important to understand. And then he said, absolutely. And that was really, really i think a victory for the film in that we were able to show this very Important Group that are experiencing hunger and Food Insecurity, but that are not its very hidden. What do you take from their stories . Because you worked with a totally different population. Im not so sure theyre that different, thats the thing. I think that, when you were saying before about stereotypes i think that in the press and our legislators have a certain stereotype about whos poor and whos not, and this concept of the deserving poor. But the women that i work with through witnesses to hunger are very hardworking. Theyre excellent mothers, excellent parents. They want the best for their kids. Theyre often working two or three jobs. Sometimes theyll have to work under the table in order to make ends meet, trying to find side jobs. Theyre hustling really hard. And i see the police chief. I see the cowboy whos also taking on that second job. What i see is common among them is a loss of dignity in the work. You can actually work full time and your family is still hungry . Theres a very big problem in this country that we are not valuing hard work like we used to. Theres a young woman in the film who says, quote, hunger could be right next door and you would never know because people are too afraid to talk about it. Why are people afraid to talk about it, dr. Chilton . Well, i think theres an enormous amount of shame that goes especially i work with moms of little children, Young Children, and theres an enormous amount of shame that they experience that they may run out of money before they can get more food. And it really tests their sense of motherhood, their sense of citizenship, of belonging. And its very isolating. And i think that when the moms that i speak with, they talk about when they were children. They, too, were hungry. And they were always told, dont talk about it. Dont let anybody know how hard it is. Always put on a good face. Always look good, you know. Its about being able to be in the world and be treated with a sense of dignity and respect. So they would often hide their own experiences of hunger or hide the experience that they cant feed their own children. Do we pass hunger down as a legacy to the next generation . Oh, yes, we do. It gets transferred from generation to generation. Now, it also happens that during an economic downturn, when there are not enough goodpaying jobs, of course hunger will skyrocket. But i think that when people dont realize that hunger is very damaging to children, too. Especially to Young Children. Food insecurity affects the cognitive, social and emotional growth of very Young Children. That means that by the time they arrive to kindergarten, theyre not ready for school. That means that when theyre in school, if theyre hungry, they wont be able to concentrate on what theyre learning, and they wont do as well on their math and their reading tests. That means they wont be as successful, wont get a good paying job so that, when they have children they, too, will be poor. So poverty is an experience thats really seared into the bodies and brains of children. What happens to someone who gets too little nutrition early in life . Oh, its extremely important. If you think about whats happening in the first three years of life, the brain is growing so fast. Theyre the most important years of human development. So every moment those are the Building Blocks of good cognitive, social and Emotional Development. Neurons are growing and pruning and very active. 700 neurons are growing a second for an infant. Its the most important window of human development. So any type of nutritional deprivation during this time has a severe impact on the brain, even if its just episodic, even if it happens once or twice a month. Those are moments of lost opportunity to be able to interact with their family and their environment, to Pay Attention and to learn something new, which helps to grow more neurons. So again, it affects the cognitive, social and Emotional Development. It creates a certain kind of a stress on the child thats very toxic. And we know that children who experience that kind of toxic stress cant learn as well, cant learn as fast. And you can turn that around with Food Assistance programs, with a program called wic women, infants and children or the Food Stamp Program. The best investment of our dollars in this country is investing in very Young Children and their families because, again, those are the most important times when a childs brain is growing. So for every 1 that you spend on a child, you make 7 back when they become an adolescent. Its a beautiful investment. Kristi has a remarkable profile. A portrait in the film of a young girl named i think her names rosie. Okay, mine is about this goddess or queen. Her husband died, and he gave half of his kingdom to the romans, and hunger definitely impacts my classroom. I have had students come to me upset, and its definitely a huge issue in our small community. One student in particular, rosie. I just really felt she wasnt really applying herself in the classroom, and i couldnt figure out where that attitude was coming from. And what i realized, when i brought her in one day, was the main issue was that she was hungry. I struggle a lot and most of the time its because my stomach is really hurting. My teacher tells me to get focused, and she told me to write focus on my little sticker. And every time i look at it, and im like, oh, im supposed to be focusing. I start yawning, and then i zone out. And im just looking at the teacher. And i look at her, and all i think about is food. So i have these little visions in my eyes. Sometimes when i look at her, i vision her as a banana. So she goes like a banana, and everybody in the class is like apples or oranges. And then im like, oh, great. Tell me about rosie. Rosie is an incredible young girl. And i think that what struck me so much about rosie is that her story sort of embodied everything about this issue, which is that, while shes experiencing this hunger and Food Insecurity, its affecting her selfesteem. Its affecting her ability to learn, which is very upsetting. But at the same time, she has this incredible spirit, which gives you this you know, some feeling of hope and inspiration. So shes just an incredible young girl. And that story is replicated in your experience . Oh, very much so, very common. I think that you know, i think again, i work with families that have very Young Children. And ive been watching the development of the children over time. And some are really doing just so beautifully. Very dear, full of light and so much potential. And i think what people forget is that, you think you can somehow see hunger. You cant look at rosie and see, oh, shes hungry. So where do you see it . You see it in school performance. Their ability to get along with others. Their ability to Pay Attention for children of school age. Attendance. And attendance. But also for really Young Children, where do you see it . You see it in the increased hospitalizations, showing up more to the emergency room when they dont with preventible diseases, or preventible exacerbation of asthma. This you know, if we could think about poverty during childhood as a type of a disease, if we could pay as much attention to poverty for children as we Pay Attention to infectious disease, we might be able to do something in this country. I was struck again about how important a teacher like Leslie Nichols is to a child like rosie, just as you are to the people you work with. They can make a difference, cant they . Oh, they can. I think, oftentimes, theyre First Responders because theyre the ones who are seeing how well the children are doing. Theyre with those kids moment to moment and seeing whether theyre taking in the information or not. And theyre making such sorry, theyre making such a difference. And in the case of Leslie Nichols, you know, she had this added you know, her own personal experience with hunger, enabled her to recognize that it was hunger that was causing the problems in rosie. While other teachers might think youve got a behavioral problem or youre just you know, youre a difficult one. So i think its important to also empower teachers who are in a position to really help these young kids overcome some of these obstacles by recognizing that hunger is something we need to address. The film makes dramatically clear the relationship between malnutrition and obesity. Step up on there. Step up on the table right there, and ill be with you in just a second. What grade you in . Second. Second . Youre in the second grade . How old are you . Fixing to be eight. Fixing to be eight. All right. And youve got asthma . Okay. Do you ever have problems with shortness of breath when youre outside playing or anything . I have to stop playing to take a deep breath. Okay. What did you eat for breakfast this morning . I didnt eat. You didnt eat breakfast this morning . Okay. When you get home in the afternoon, do you eat a snack . What do you eat . Chips. Chips . What else, baby . What do you drink . Pop. Pops. Okay. Do you have any other snacks besides chips you could eat . Cookies. Kisses . Cookies. Cookies . Cookies and chips . Okay. Well, maybe you could ask mom to start buying you some carrots and some celery and maybe some apples. You could slice some apples up. Thatd be good, hm . A lot of people think there is a yawning gap between hunger on the one end and obesity on the other. In fact, theyre neighbors, and the reason that they happen often at the same time and often in the same family, in the same person is because they are both signs of having insufficient funds to be able to command food that you need to stay healthy. If you look at what has happened to the relative price of fresh fruits and vegetables, its gone up by 40 since 1980 when the obesity epidemic first began. In contrast, the relative price of processed foods has gone down by about 40 . So if you have only a limited amount of money to spend, youre going to spend it on the cheapest calories you can get, and thats going to be processed foods. This has to do with our farm policy and what we subsidize and what we dont. Help me understand the connection between hunger and obesity. Hunger and obesity are both forms of malnutrition. Meaning . Meaning not it means not getting the right kinds of nutrients for an active and healthy life. If you go back to the definition of Food Insecurity, it means having enough food for an active and healthy life. So when people think about hunger, they think, oh, its just not enough food. But actually Food Insecurity which is a much broader term, much more precise, captures that type of experience where families dont have enough money for healthy and fresh food so they will in order to stretch their dollar, theyll spend it on soda, or on foods that have very high calories. Because they know that their kids are hungry, they have to be able to stretch their dollar in order to fill their own tummies and the tummies of their children. They know its not healthy, but theyre just trying to figure out what the immediate the immediacy of hunger. So they eat lots of high calories, salt, sodium. Those are the kinds of things that are not good for an active and healthy life. Its another form of hunger. So you can look at people who are overweight and obese and think maybe they dont have enough money for food. Maybe theyre anxious about where their next meal is coming from. You say in the film that there are 50 Million People, one in six, who are food insecure, who do not have enough Good Nutrition to thrive. Its shocking that here in the wealthiest nation on earth we have this many people who do not have either access to Healthy Foods nor can they afford it. And, you know, i think that we need to look at and what we wanted to do with this film is not just say, look, heres a portrait of hungry people, but look at why we have such a large problem, a big problem here in this country. What does it say that one out of every two kids in this country, at some point in their childhood, as i learned from your film, will be on Food Assistance . One out of two . I see a country in crisis. And its a crisis that we need to address, and we need Political Leadership and policies that tackle this problem dead on. And when we were making the film, we looked to a film that aired on cbs in 1968 called, hunger in america. Food is the most basic of human needs. That showed the nation shocking c