A Place at the Table Movie Review

I’m glad that I was able to go watch the screening last week because the movie truly emphasized on the alarming situation in our country. I usually don’t like watching films that are relative to what happening to our nation but this movie really showed an impact to me. It’s a national disgrace than nearly 50 million of our American neighbors live in homes that can’t afford enough food. This compelling film explains why we have this problem, and, most importantly, what we can do to end it.

I think everyone in America should see this film because it emphasizes how big the problem is. The movie powerfully displayed the real lives of actual people whom were struggling against hunger. And every single one of these individuals defied a common stereotypes of hungry people. I believe that many Americans believe that we can end U.S. hunger one person at a time, one donated perishable good at a time. They are all acting as a good Samaritan but they are wrong, as this film proves.

When Ronald Reagan entered office in 1981, there were only a few hundred emergency feeding programs in America, most of which were traditional soup kitchens serving mostly the people who had been historically the most hungry, the single men with substance abuse or mental illness problems. Yet, as a direct result of the economic policies and social service cuts set in motion by Reagan, the number of emergency feeding programs in America skyrocketed, and continued to do so even after he left office.

There are now more than 40,000 such programs in America, and roughly two-thirds of them are food pantries, where parents and their children, the elderly, and working people obtain free groceries. Meanwhile, hunger has soared. The truth is that these agencies simply don’t have anything close to the resources needed to meet the demand. This vital film proves that the only way to truly end U.S. hunger is by advocating for fundamental change that include living wage jobs and a robust government safety net.