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Hi all,

Have you hear about/seen "A Place at the Table"? Jan Poppendick speaks
eloquently about the issues of hunger, the reliance on charity, and the lack
of adequate government programming and comprehensive solutions. Cong
McGovern is prominent.

I saw the film last night and thought it was extremely well done. Jan is a
friend and does a great job. It is by Jeff Skoll's group Participant Media.
Look for it in your local theatres. MORE below.

Cheers,

Kathryn

http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table


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FIVE MINUTES WITH...


<http://www.plateonline.com/MembersOnly/WebNews/details.aspx?item=40045&allo
wguest=true&asuser=smartbrief@plateonline.com> Kristi Jacobson and Lori
Silverbush on "A Place at the Table"


http://www.marketingandtechnology.com/repository/webstories/webst12315.jpgBa
rbie Izquierdo and her kids in a scene from "A Place at the Table," a
Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

By now it shouldn't be news that the rate of hunger in the United States is
on a terrifyingly steep climb. More than 50 million Americans are now
considered "food insecure," which means, bluntly, they don't know where
their next meal is coming from.

Yet, as the 2012 election season made clear, hunger and poverty still barely
register on the political radar. The new documentary "A Place at the Table"
aims to move the needle. Created by the team behind "Food, Inc.," the film
explores the causes and consequences of hunger through the stories of three
disparate Americans - Barbie, a single mom of two in Philadelphia; Rosie, a
fifth-grader in small-town Colorado; and Tremonica, a Mississippi
second-grader with asthma - while experts including Raj Patel,Marion Nestle
and Tom Colicchio (husband of filmmaker Lori Silverbush) put the hunger
crisis in context. We talked withSilverbush and her co-director, Kristi
Jacobson, in advance of the film's March 1 debut.

What was it about the subject of hunger that you found compelling as
filmmakers?

KRISTI: One of the many things that we found most compelling is the fact
that the consequences are so devastating and so vast, and affecting not just
the individuals but the instututions that support them, like the schools,
and the health care system. So many people are affected but so few
understand the scope of the hunger crisis. Media coverage is so skewed. Once
a year, around the holidays, you hear about the problem of hunger and,
usually, that coverage just points to charity as a solution.

What's wrong with relying on charity? And what sort of systemwide changes
could shift that focus?

LORI: I think that as a nation we've grown a bit conditioned to think that
charity can fix a lot of problems because over the last decade our
government has very nimbly handed responsibility for social welfare back off
to the private sector. I think that, as a nation, we are really generous
people and we want to do the right thing. I mean, I've never met a person
who thinks that it is OK that there are hungry children in America. But the
truth is that if charity could fix this problem it would have done it
already, because we've seen such an explosion of food assistance from
churches, synagogues, neighborhood groups, et cetera.

KRISTI: In terms of solutions, we need to protect the food stamp program and
adequately fund it, but we also need to re-envision how the program works.
What they did in the 1970s in response to public outcry about hunger in the
U.S. was modernize the program so that it worked for hungry people, rather
than penalizing people who are trying to lift themselves up out of poverty.
Now, we need to make this issue one that politicians think matters. That's
the only way we're going to get real movement on the issue. So we need to
let our politicians know that this is not OK and that we're watching how
they vote on issues that affect hunger.

Do you have any personal experience with hunger? What inspired you to make
this film?

LORI: Some years ago I was mentoring a young girl whose family was going
through a really rough time and she was having a difficult time in school.
So I worked behind the scenes to get her into a private school, and I felt
really good about that - until I got a phone call from the principal who
told me that she had been foraging in the trash for food. Now that she was
in private school she had lost her meal subsidy, and what was often her only
meal of the day. And, so of course I felt absolutely terrible and we tried
to alleviate that, finding donations and ways to get her lunches. But that's
not going to fix anything in the long term.

We can give people charity and we can direct people to food pantries, but
that's not going can't fix the problem. So I reached out to Kristi and said
do you think this is something that would make for good filmmaking? And she
said yes, of course. It really lends itself to documentary, because the
true stories of the people that we follow are so moving.

What role does the restaurant industry play in solving this problem - and
what can it do better?

LORI: Chefs have really taken a leadership role in addressing hunger in this
country. They are the first responders. Because chefs enjoy such a special
place in the public mind, they often are asked to take the lead in
fundraising - to be the boldfaced name on an invite to a charity dinner. And
that's fantastic, and needed. But it would be really terrific if we could
get the restaurant industry to engage the public, to get people activated on
the issue, to get them to know their voices matter and get the word out that
the average person can really do something by calling, texting, tweeting.
That is actually more effective than people writing checks, especially in
tough times. Because of their close relationship to food and the food
supply, chefs care a lot and we can hopefully get them to carry the message.

Do you think that the hunger crisis speaks to something larger about the
cultural and political moment we're in right now?

LORI: Over 50 million Americans are food insecure. That's no longer an issue
for just marginalized people. But what led us to this point is a systemic
problem. It's something that has its roots in systemwide problems and
policies that are so easy to fix, if we just got on board and did it. We can
fix SNAP and update it, fix policies that address agriculture, and to do so
just makes good economic sense because it's costing our economy hundreds of
billions of dollars in health care costs. I think it definitely speaks to
this moment in time, when everyone has their eye on the deficit. Because if
you are really freaked out about how we, as a nation, are going to pay for
things, you need to fix this. Because it's so much cheaper in the long run.

What can viewers do to get involved?

LORI: The film comes out March 1 and will be available on iTunes and Amazon
on-demand as well, so people who might not have access to a theater can see
it then and there. But on the same day we're also launching the
<http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table/action> National Action Center,
the first-ever national campaign to end hunger and a way to give people
tools to help end hunger.

KRISTI: As filmmakers this was an incredibly important goal of our film.
First, of course, we wanted to tell these amazing human stories. But we also
wanted to create a really well thought-out, comprehensive campaign that'll
give people a way to get involved and make a difference. So we are really
very excited about that.

Here's the trailer for "A Place at the Table."


[No Subject]


A shocking subject - and so well hidden it seems - Today Europe has 19
million people out of jobs because of austerity and the whole world richess
is in the pockets of over 100 people