CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
ShangLuda
Admirable film.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
cheryl-810-457663
Great subject for a documentary but I struggle so hard with the solutions given. Only the second grade teacher was even close to touching on the subject. We have to teach children at a young age to GROW their own food. Some of these families are living in areas where they say they can not buy fresh produce yet the grass around their house is 6 inches tall. Start small,lettuce seeds... that's how I learned. I can feed my family for three dollars a day on huge veggie sandwiches. Sure, it's not going to solve the problem over night but kids, parents, teachers just need to change their idea about what REAL food is. Edible landscaping in schools with kids learning about seeds! Charities handing out cookies and sh*t snacks is only making the problem worse. Don't ask Washington for help!! You're never going to get it. We need churches and charities to give people seeds. Learn to grow your own food, harvest the seeds, and you will never be hungry again.
Roland E. Zwick
Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson's documentary "A Place at the Table" is a film that every politician - indeed, every citizen - in America should be forced to sit through at least once (or as many times as it takes to get the message to effectively sink in). It makes a very persuasive case that, contrary to what most people think, hunger is a major problem in the United States, a nation that prides itself on being the wealthiest in the history of the world. Not only does the movie provide the startling statistics necessary to back that assertion up, but explains why this is the case.Silverbush and Jacobson build their case in a meticulous, logical fashion, beginning with the common, counterintuitive fallacy that hungry people necessarily equal thin people. The movie explains how obesity and hunger often go hand in hand, thanks to the fact that, since junk food is cheaper than healthy food to purchase, the poor often fill up on empty calories rather than the nutritious ones that would actually make them healthy. This is a result of a misguided federal policy that provides subsidies for agribusinesses (as opposed to mom-and-pop farmers), who turn their grain and corn into inexpensive processed foods. Since farmers who grow fruits and vegetables work more independently of one another, they don't have the clout necessary to receive similar government support. This leads to a vicious cycle that winds up hurting poor people in both urban and rural areas where "food deserts" arise in which residents can barely find a fresh fruit or vegetable to purchase.The movie rightly celebrates the many charities that pick up some of the slack, but it makes the case that that is simply not enough, that an entire paradigm shift may be necessary if we ever hope to solve the problem.Ultimately, what we discover is that hunger is merely a symptom of a much greater set of problems - which are poverty, income inequality and a political system rigged to benefit the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the indigent and disconnected. Above all, the key lies in both the public and private sectors providing a living wage for their workers.Finally, beyond all the statistics, beyond all the comments by experts and authorities on the subject, it is the voices of the parents, who can't afford to put nutritious food on the table for their children, and of the children themselves, who often go to bed hungry or malnourished, who wind up making the greatest mark on our hearts. It is their testimonials more than anything else that will hopefully move the rest of us to action.A must-see film.
rbsteury
My wife and I downloaded this from iTunes today and were so impacted by the film. The film follows several people of different races and backgrounds, urban to the South to the mountains of Colorado. All are working (as the film goes on) but none make enough to buy enough food to be sure it will last all month. Many of them do not even qualify for food stamps/bridge cards. The fact that the poor and hungry have little lobbying impact in Washington compared to the gigantic agribusiness flood of money is clearly part of the reason we see this dilemma where the richest large nation fails miserably in keeping its working poor feed. Please see this film if you care about this issue. Many of your opinions may turn out to be misconceptions founded on stereotypes.As for Marc Newman's criticism, the idea that charity organizations like food kitchens and food banks sponsored by churches (yes, those clips of devoted pastors and churches were kept in and were very impressive) could solve this problem is ludicrous. We are talking about 50 million people and 13 million children. As my pastor (who is VERY conservative) says... the problem is overwhelming. There is no way volunteer and charitable organizations can meet the demand, and for Mr. Newman to suggest it could makes me wonder if he has ever worked at trying to get food to the poor. Many of us have done so and we know how huge this problem is... far beyond the resources of the faith community. As was noted in this documentary, the government once before almost totally eliminated hunger (in the late 70's) when both Democrats and Republicans (including Ronald Reagan) made it a priority. The government could do it again if it desired.
Marc Newman
I saw A Place at the Table when it was at Sundance in 2012 and going under the title Finding North. I think that the filmmakers are well-intentioned, but the argument presented in this film is plainly absurd. During the Q and A after the film, the director was asked by an audience member if he was correctly stating her position, that the source of the problem of "food insecurity" was Washington's Faustian bargain with big agriculture, and she replied that it was. Then came the follow-up question: "Why in the world would you trust for solving this problem the very people responsible for causing it?" The audience -- do remember that this is Sundance, not known as a bastion of conservatism -- burst into applause. The only organization that seem to really be making a difference in the film was a private church with an extensive food outreach program. Don't be misled. The problem this film addresses is not starvation, or even hunger, it is what they term "food insecurity." No one in the film deals with the true source of the problem, which is the breakdown in the family, and the replacement of parental responsibility with government subsidy, which cyclically feeds the breakdown of families. Kudos to the filmmakers for highlighting the involvement of that local church -- I hope it made it into this final version of the film -- because if more churches were involved in the lives of the hurting people in their communities, they could provide a whole lot more than anonymous food stamps. They could create community, educate about nutrition, and give people benefiting ownership of the program so that they no longer had to feel dependent all the time. The film will tug at your heart -- just don't forget to engage your brain.
