Review of the film “Place at the table”

Hunger is a very important issue in the United States. The film “Place at the table” addresses to this problem through the stories of American people and families who have to face the struggle with hunger on the daily basis. It is hard to believe that such a prosperous country like United States has such an issue, but the statistics provided by U.S. Department of Agriculture tells us the horrifying truth that one in every six Americans does not have enough food to eat. That is approximately fifty million people. The government and majority of US people are in denial of this problem, because they are simply ashamed to acknowledge it. Hunger can be next door in your neighborhood, but nobody knows about it, because people afraid to talk about it.
Another issue that is addressed in the film is obesity among the Americans. It might seems to be weird to talk about obesity when you focusing on the problems of hunger, however obesity and hunger have a lot in common. Some people just don’t have enough money to purchase the food that will help them to stay fit and healthy, so they look for the cheapest processed foods which are not always good. According to the static provided in the film, price of fresh food and vegetables went up by forty percent since 1980, and that is when the epidemic of obesity began in the United States. At the same time price of processed foods has declined by forty percent since then. Therefore people with low-income spend money on the cheapest calories they can get.
So, why in such powerful and wealthy country like United States people experience problems with access to healthy nutritious food or any food at all? Are people hungry because a shortage of food? No, there is enough food in America to feed every...

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...to purchase food, don’t have any choice but to shop in the local mini-marts that usually have limited availability of products.
So, who will feed America, when assistance programs are very hard to qualify, food stamps don’t provide enough to feed the family, and every one out of two children in the United States is on food assistance program? Charities, food banks? Yes, they are great, they help communities and people in need with food, but they not going to put a stop to the hunger. Americans need to find out that a lot of their fellow citizens, especially children, suffer from hunger and food insecurities. Somehow we need to find a solution, we need to make fruits, vegetables and healthy food cheaper and more accessible to people. We need better government programs that are focused on human beings and not on corporate America well-being. No kid should go hungry!