Starving in a First World Country

I went to the showing of A Place at the Table that took place at the Alamo draft house in downtown Kalamazoo. I had never been there prior to the event and it was a pretty cool experience for a movie theatre. I had watched the trailer for this movie before I went but that did not prepare me at all for the emotions I was going to be feeling for the duration of that film. The movie made me cry and yell in disbelief. It was basically all about hunger issues in the United States and how hard it is for families who need help to actually get it. It had interviews with several struggling families across the United States, and each ones story honestly broke my heart. The movie made me feel like such a shitty person for ever complaining about what my mom made me for dinner. As I watched mothers pouring ravioli in a pot with tears streaming down their face over the agony of not being able to provide anything else for their children. A lot of these families are denied assistance due to their income being over the limit, when you look at the incomes of the families being denied though, you see that the space between them and the limit is not that big. With natural food costs going up and processed food going down, more and more of these families are also being forced to buy the processed ‘junk’ food to feed their families simply because they cannot afford the wholesome food they deserve. This is an issue of national outrage. We have thousands starving on a daily basis when they could be helped more simply than we think. The United States almost completely eliminated hunger within our borders and here’s the shocker; it didn’t cost us that much money! The problem? Other parts of our government needed more funding, so the first programs to get cut were the food programs, leaving those who were struggling to survive on an even harder path than they were. This movie made really made me understand where our government officials main priorities are when it comes to their people; and I sure hope that I am lucky enough to continue to provide for myself as there will most likely be no food programs available for me if I do need the aide.