# Draw me a map #
# That I can hold #
# Lines that tell me where to go #
# My head is full #
# Of lonely harmonies #
# And questions
no one's asking me #
# Who's gonna take my hand? #
# Show me the way? #
# How long will I have to wait #
# For someday? #
# Well, it's not the sky #
# I'm asking for #
# I'm just having trouble #
# Finding north #
# I've gone as far #
# As I can go #
# Trying to find something #
# That feels like #
# Home #
# Who's gonna take my hand? #
# Show me the way? #
# How long will I have to wait #
# For someday? #
Collbran, Colorado, is really cool,
and it's mostly where
all the cowboys
and cowgirls roam.
We're just country people.
The town of Collbran
is a quaint, quiet little town
with that honorable
Code of the West type atmosphere.
# Home #
Close-knit.
Caring.
- And yet, almost desperate.
- # The leaves have changed #
# A time or two #
# Since the last time
the train came through #
- Here, food.
- # I got my ticket #
# And I'm going to go #
All right, this is my tree house.
This is my table that I built,
and this is the carpets
that I found in our shed,
and so I just put it in here.
And sometimes I sit here
when I'm, like, sad
or if I'm angry.
If I get a bad, um, grade
in one of my classes
'cause I'm not doing really good.
Our home is a two-family unit.
And my daughter lives with us
and her family and my husband.
You're finding out more and more
that the kids
come back to the parents
and they live
and that's about how you make it.
I work at The Cattleman's Grill.
I've never received
government assistance,
but I went down there...
And I was gonna try
to get food stamps.
They turned me away.
My paycheck is
about $120 every two weeks.
So it's hard.
My husband,
he works for St. Mary's Hospital.
And I'm working now, too,
so we're over the limit for help.
We've got seven people
in our family,
so you make your food stretch.
We've been
without vegetables for a while.
We do run out of milk.
We eat dry cereal.
You have to live
the best you can.
You've got to make things
stretch nowadays.
It's not easy.
Sometimes we run out of food,
so we try to figure out something.
Probably ask friends for food.
We get really hungry,
and our tummies just growl,
and sometimes
I feel like I'm gonna barf
'cause it feels bad.
But I don't really know
what to do.
# You alone are my heart's desire #
# And I long to worship You #
The title of the message this morning
is "Church and Community."
The church should always be
in the community.
And I believe what we're doing
is exactly what Jesus
would have us do,
is exactly what He's doing
in the world today.
Jesus was involved
in those around Him.
Jesus fed 5,000.
We fed 5,000 here
in the not too distant past.
Hunger is
an issue in our community.
One of the ways we found
that the need
is greater than we thought was,
on Wednesday nights,
we started preparing a meal
for anyone who wants to come.
And we had no idea
what to expect.
And now we have
between 80 and 120
that we'll feed a hot meal
to every Wednesday.
So it is a bigger problem
that we're aware of.
I think
when people hear the term "hunger,"
they still imagine a skinny,
undernourished human being.
They see the pictures of famine victims
from sub-Saharan Africa.
That's the image
that we carry around.
If you're comparing hunger in America
to hunger
of the most grinding kind,
then no, I mean,
people are not dying of hunger
in the same way here
that they are in Africa.
But that's about the best
that you can say.
It's a problem that people
are ashamed of acknowledging.
Our own government is ashamed
of acknowledging it
from my point of view.
And you just kind of, you know,
you're... We're in denial
about it, I think.
No.
Aww, thank you.
Hunger is right here in the United States.
It could be right next door,
and you would never know
because people
are too afraid to talk about it.
- Hold on tight.
- Oh, boom.
Bella, watch your shoe.
Being where I'm from,
there's so many expectations
of these girls just have kids,
drop out, do drugs.
You know, things like that.
I don't want to be that person.
Since August, I lost my job,
I had to get on public assistance
to be able to have some type of income
coming into the house.
What's that?
- Train.
- A train coming.
My dream is to go to college.
If I go to school,
it's an investment in my future,
but at the same time,
I'm struggling so much every day
to be able to even feed
my kids every day.
- Uh-oh.
- Wow.
So it's really hard
to make that decision now.
Like, I can't tell my kids,
"Okay, I'm going to school,
"so in two years,
we're gonna be fine."
I can't tell them,
"Yeah, I'll make sure
"you guys eat in two years."
Aiden, come eat.
- Eat it all.
- No.
Look, you could pick it up.
All my life, I know what it's like
to eat Oodles of Noodles,
seven days a week,
three, four times a day,
'cause it's all we had
and cans of Chef Boyardee.
When I had my children,
I said I would never,
ever let them taste it
just because that was
my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
But life brings you
situations and circumstances,
and it's up to you to be able
to deal with it
and find a way to get through it.
A survey from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture
reports that one in six Americans
say they don't have
enough to eat.
Last year,
nearly 30% of U.S. Families
were classified as "food insecure."
Food insecurity is this idea
that you don't know where
your next meal is coming from.
You have no idea
how you're going to manage
to find that food
or afford that food.
And when 50 million Americans
don't have that power,
that's a very dark indication
indeed of where we are.
Step up on there.
This will make a noise.
Step up on the table right there.
I'll be with you in just a second.
- What grade you in?
- Second.
Second?
You're in the second grade?
- How old are you?
- I'm gonna be eight.
Fixing to be eight.
All right,
and you've got asthma?
Okay, do you ever have problems
with shortness of breath
when you're outside playing
or anything?
I have to stop playing
and take a deep breath.
Okay. What did you eat
for breakfast this morning?
I didn't eat.
You didn't eat breakfast
this morning? Okay.
When you get home
in the afternoon,
do you eat a snack?
What do you eat?
- Chips.
- Chips? What else, baby?
What do you drink?
- Pop.
- Pop? Okay.
Do you have any other snacks
besides chips you could eat?
- Huh?
- Cookies.
- Kisses?
- Cookies.
Cookies.
Cookies and chips, okay.
Maybe you
could ask Mom to start
buying you some... some carrots
and some celery
and maybe some apples.
You could slice some apples up.
That'd be good, hmm?
A lot of people think
there is a yawning gap
between hunger on the one hand
and obesity on the other.
In fact, they're neighbors.
And the reason
that they happen often
in the same time
and often in the same family
and the same person
is because they're both signs
of having insufficient funds
to be able to command
food that you need to stay healthy.
Mostly, I really shop for...
I look around
and see what's the cheapest.
You have... Fruit are very high.
And you got chips that's 35 a bag.
So I say, "Okay,
I'm not gonna get the fruit.
"I'm gonna get some chips."
But if the fruit on sale,
I'll leave the chips and get the fruit.
She's overweight for her age.
She's very overweight for her age.
So I have to sort of watch,
and that bothers me.
Tremon, do you want blue juice
or cranberry juice?
Blue juice.
If you look at what has happened
to the relative price
of fresh fruits and vegetables,
it's gone up by 40% since 1980
when the obesity epidemic first began.
In contrast, the relative price
of processed foods
has gone down by about 40%.
So if you have only a limited amount
of money to spend,
you're going to spend it
on the cheapest calories you can get.
And that's going
to be processed foods.
This has to do
with our farm policy
and what we subsidize
and what we don't.
# Look out, Ma, look out, Pa #
# Look at that horizon #
# Something's out there,
kicking up dust #
# Storm is coming fast #
The subsidy system that we now have
actually started back in the 1930s
during the Great Depression.
Farmers were the first to be hit hard
when the economy went bad.
There was a lot of pressure to put
some sort of
government assistance forward
to help them get a decent price
at harvest time for their crops.
The programs
in the Great Depression,
of course,
were emergency programs.
The idea was, if we could,
on a temporary basis,
help support
the prices of farm products,
that we'd get
through this difficult period.
And then we would let
the market take over,
except we never let
the market take over.
# It's been a long time coming #
In the 1930s and '40s
and into the '50s,
and even a little bit beyond that,
I think you could make the case
that it really was family farmers
who were mostly benefiting
from these programs.
But as the agricultural sector
became more concentrated
in terms of ownership
of the land resources,
more and more
of these operations
came to resemble agribusinesses
and not family farming operations.
# It's been #
# A long time coming #
# It's been #
# A long time #
The U.S. Department
of Agriculture, USDA,
Is one of the most diverse
and complex agencies
in the entire federal government.
It does everything
from international food trade
to the Forest Service,
to food safety,
to animal protection,
to, of course, farming programs,
and food and nutrition programs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
has increasingly become the domain
of support for mega-farms
and mega-farming corporations.
Most of that subsidy money,
about 70% of it,
has gone just
to 10% of those beneficiaries.
The biggest,
largest, best capitalized farms,
they're hauling
in this taxpayer money now.
And so there
is this weird paradox
where welfare
for the poor is scorned,
but corporate welfare,
as it's known,
is sort of heartily endorsed.
We subsidize
the basic ingredients in processed foods.
We do not subsidize fruits,
vegetables, and whole grains,
because the producers tend
to be small producers.
They don't have
the kind of political clout
that the big commodity producers
of corn and soybeans
and wheat
that gets processed do.
These subsidies
made products very cheap,
and therefore made it profitable
for the food industry
to invest in the infrastructure
for processing those products
into the packaged goods
that we see on every counter,
in every corner store,
in every vending machine,
that are really ubiquitous now
and all around us.
Slicin' onions, gets you...
so you know that.
Just try to be careful.
I'm Ree. I have four boys,
and I live in Jonestown, Mississippi.
I've been living
in Jonestown all my life.
I'm in the kitchen.
Look, that's funny to her.
Raw onion, grilled onion.
What I do for work is I cook.
I work the cash register,
I do the dishes.
Mainly, I just pitch in,
you know, and help.
We have stores in Jonestown.
We have about
three grocery stores,
but it's hard in getting
some of the things
like, when you want fruits,
there's no store sell fruits.
Maybe one store will have
a few bananas.
They have vegetables,
but it's in a can.
I love fresh vegetables and fruit.
It's very frustrating
they don't have it here.
There's this thing called a food desert.
So out in the county,
you have these mom and pop shops.
And they don't have
fruits and veggies.
There are several issues.
Agriculture's a big business.
So I get this big 18-wheeler,
and I'm delivering food.
I'll deliver it to Walmart,
and I'll deliver it to Kroger,
and these others chains,
but I can't afford to take
my 18-wheeler
and go through
these back roads.
They're off the beaten path.
So you just don't fit our model,
you know.
Maximum delivery, minimum cost.
And so we're consuming
what's available to us.
Chips and ice cream and cakes.
They have that here.
They have lots and lots
of stuff like that here.
And so,
that's why I go to Clarksdale
sometimes grocery shopping,
or Batesville,
about a 45-minute drive.
Those that doesn't
have transportation, it's hard.
All right, hon,
help Mommy cook.
Mommy cook.
I want to help you
to make spaghetti.
Okay. Here you go.
This one goes on the table.
The assistance programs
in the United States
are very hard to qualify for.
It's, like, either you're starving
or you don't get any help.
But what defines starving?
Like, if you don't eat for a day,
are you starving?
In their eyes, no.
But in your eyes
and the way you feel, of course.
Okay.
Good job.
Mom, can I do the next one?
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Put that in the water.
But do we gotta break it?
No. You don't gotta break it.
It goes in the water.
It was Aiden's turn to help, too.
Put that in there.
Okay, that was a bad idea.
I do get food stamps now,
but they last about three weeks
out of the month.
And for that last week,
I'm just going crazy.
Is it good?
Mm-hmm.
Put them in there.
- The ones that are cut.
- I'm making.
I lived on a food stamp diet for a week
along with Jo Ann Emerson
from Missouri.
We did so because we thought
that the food stamp benefit
was inadequate.
Most of my colleagues
had no idea
that the average food stamp benefit
was $3.00 a day.
I had my budget,
and I went to a supermarket.
It took me an awful long time
because you have
to add up every penny.
And it has to last you for a week.
And so I did it,
and I will tell you,
I was tired, I was cranky,
'cause I couldn't drink coffee,
'cause coffee was too expensive.
There are people who are living
on that food stamp allocation.
And you really can't.
For us, it was an exercise
that ended in a week.
For millions of other people
in this country,
that's their way of life.
Every day is a struggle just to eat.
$39.37.
Um...
Would you take 35?
You're gonna have to put
something back.
Back in the '80s,
when I formed the End Hunger Network,
we wanted to show what it was like
to live in America and, you know,
be holding down three jobs
and, you know,
you got a couple of kids
and maybe a medical problem,
and you've gotta put food
on the table,
keep a roof on your head,
and it's...
It's really a daunting task.
And we wanted to make
a film about that.
And it was made,
you know, 10, 12 years ago,
and it doesn't seem
out of date at all.
It seems...
It seems just as fresh
as the day we made it.
The problem is getting...
is getting worse.
The policy and my own feeling
in this administration
is that if there is one person
in this country hungry,
that is one too many.
And for those who cannot do
for themselves,
society has to respond.
In this era
of unprecedented prosperity,
we still have some work
of our own to do.
We hear the call
to take on the challenges
of hunger and poverty
and disease.
And that is precisely
what America is doing.
We are Americans.
We are tougher
than the times we live in,
and we are bigger
than our politics have been,
so let's meet the moment,
let's get to work,
and let's show the world once again
why the United States of America
remains the greatest nation on Earth.
We've got 44 million Americans
on the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance program,
what we used to call
food stamps.
One out of every two kids
in the United States
at some point in their childhood
will be on food assistance.
You better watch it.
Come on.
Chips right here, Mommy.
- Can I have a cheeseburger?
- Huh?
No.
Mom, I need a doughnut.
No, you got chips in your hand.
- I want a doughnut.
- You don't need doughnuts.
Aiden.
I want a doughnut!
Aiden's first year of life
was a period of a lot of struggle.
At that time,
I was making $9.00 an hour.
Buying food
was really an obstacle for me.
So I applied for food stamps,
which means
I was in the welfare office
from 8:00 in the morning
to 4:30 in the afternoon,
to then be told that
I was $2.00 over the income limit.
So because I was
$2.00 over the income limit,
I didn't... I was not eligible
for even a dollar in food stamps.
Watch.
So, you know, I didn't have
what they needed,
or there just wasn't
any more food.
And I feel like
it affected Aiden a lot.
- Mom.
- Yes?
Here, it's...
- My Elmo.
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- I want a hug.
Huh?
What happened?
- House.
- What happened with the house?
What happened? Mommy room?
Aiden... he was constantly
in and out of the hospital.
He was diagnosed with G6PD,
which is an immune deficiency.
He has hearing problems,
and earlier this month,
he was diagnosed with speech delay.
Any kind of nutritional deprivation,
however short that it could be,
in those first three years of life
can have lifelong
consequences for a child.
It affects
their cognitive development,
their ability to get along with others.
No!
Let's shine
our flashlight here and look.
They could be constantly sick,
constantly getting infections,
because they're not well nourished.
Do you know, has he had any colds?
He's actually a little sick right now.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
It can truncate
a child's developmental potential.
Whether or not it affects
their growth outcomes,
sort of their physical...
their stature and their weight,
it affects their brain
at a much deeper level.
Okay, mine is about
this, um, goddess or queen.
Her husband died,
and he gave half of his kingdom
to the Romans and...
Hunger definitely
impacts my classroom.
I have had students
come to me upset,
and it's definitely a huge issue
in our small community.
We are going to spend
a little bit of time
talking about
how to use context clues
to help us when we find words
in the textbooks that we're reading.
One student in particular, Rosie,
I just really felt
that she wasn't really
applying herself in the classroom,
and I couldn't figure out
where that attitude was coming from.
I felt that she just
really didn't care about what
I wanted her to learn or
that school was that important,
and what I realized
when I brought her in one day was
the main issue was
that she was hungry.
I struggle a lot.
And most of the time, it's because
my stomach is really hurting.
So let's take a look.
And my teacher tells me
to get focused,
and she told me to write "focus"
on one of those stickers.
And every time I look at it,
I'm, like, "Oh, I'm supposed
to be focusing."
I start yawning,
and then I zone out.
And I'm just looking
at the teacher,
and I look at her,
and all I think about is food.
So I have these little visions
in my eyes.
You're still
gonna use the same skills.
Sometimes when I look at her,
I vision her as a banana,
so she goes like a banana.
And everybody in the class
is like apples or oranges.
And then I'm, like, "Oh, great."
What were the two you were
trying to narrow it down to?
- "A" and "B."
- "A" and "B."
And why were you thinking "A"?
Um... Me, um...
We are tying the arms
behind the backs of children
as they go into public schools.
We're making it
so that we spend money for teachers
and that we deliver to them
a lot of children who can't learn.
The lost potential...
Some of those kids
could potentially be
a great scientist
or go on to be leaders
in our armed forces,
but the impact that hunger has
messes everything up.
And as a result of that,
we're weakening our nation.
Food was really important growing up,
especially around holidays.
We had to be home
for dinner every night.
My mother was
the typical Italian mother
who would not sit down
unless everybody was served.
Um, and I think that was, you know,
her way of showing
how much she loved her family.
I was in high school at the time.
My mother decided to take a job
managing a school cafeteria
at Elizabeth where we grew up.
Years later, my brother and I,
we tried to get her to retire.
And she sat down and she said,
"You know, I'm not ready to retire yet."
I said, "Why?"
She said, "You know, these kids
"that come into my lunchroom
for breakfast and lunch,
"I know this is the only thing
they're eating all day."
For your elimination challenge,
you'll be feeding students
using the same restrictive budget
that our public schools have:
$2.68 per child.
Childhood nutrition has become
a huge health crisis in this country.
And in this challenge,
we were looking at various things.
Part of it to get kids
to eat vegetables and stuff
and whether or not you were
cooking food
that was appropriate
for a school lunch.
I had wanted to do a healthy dessert
that incorporated fruits,
but that was not possible
within our budget.
The point was that you guys
would get tripped up
because that's the problem
that the country has.
Did you find that
you had to add more sugar
because the bananas were starchy?
I believe there was a total
of about two pounds of sugar.
What's served in the schools
is very much a function
of the kind of investment
we've been willing to make.
If you figure that
the federal government
is reimbursing schools
$2.68 for a meal that's served free,
and you take out the labor cost
and the administrative cost
and cost for gas and electricity
and custodial services
and what have you,
it really doesn't leave
a lot for food.
Most schools report that
they have between
90 and a dollar
to actually spend on food.
We're spending less
than a dollar, okay? On lunch.
Now I don't know about you,
but I go to Starbucks and Peet's
and places like that,
and a Venti latte
in San Francisco is $5.00.
One gourmet coffee...
One... is more...
We spend more on
than we are spending to feed
kids for an entire week in our schools.
The dollars that
are being used for reimbursement
haven't changed since 1973.
We need to get
better nutritious foods in school.
And the only way to do that
is by increasing
the amount of the reimbursement.
The Committee
on Education and Labor will come to order.
Good morning to everyone.
This morning, we'll discuss a new
bipartisan child nutrition legislation
we introduced earlier
this month to address
critical health and economic
needs in this country.
As thinking adults,
as fellow parents,
this is an egregious abdication
of our responsibility towards kids.
Let's fund school programs
at a spending level
that significantly raises
the quality and variety
of what schools can afford.
A country as strong,
as rich, as powerful as ours,
and yet we have youngsters
who are hungry?
It's one of the reasons
why Harry Truman in 1946
established the school lunch program,
because he recognized that a country
was only as strong as its youth.
Only 25% of youngsters
in America today,
ages 19 to 24,
are fit for military service.
And one of
the principle reasons for that
is that too many
of our youngsters are overweight.
The Institute of Medicine did a study
of the nutritional value
of the meals
that we are currently serving
to our children and found
that there was too much fat,
too much sugar,
too much sodium, not enough fruits,
not enough vegetables.
There is obviously room
for improvement.
And that's why I'm here today
to encourage this committee
and this Congress
to take action now, not to delay.
There are concerns
on both sides of the aisle
by many members of Congress,
and I think by the American people,
that we don't have enough money
to do everything we want to do.
When it comes
to domestic issues,
the health and education
of our nation's children,
I think is one of
our highest priorities.
If we don't change the direction
we're heading,
this generation will be the first
to live sicker and die younger
than their parents' generation.
Check it out.
I want to see
how tall you are, okay?
Okay.
Thank you. High five.
High five.
Okay, since March of last year,
did you ever eat less than
you felt that you should
because there wasn't
enough money to buy food?
Yes.
Since March of last year
did you ever cut the size
of your meals
or skip meals because there
wasn't enough money for food?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
How often did this happen?
- It happens quite a lot.
- Okay.
Okay, okay, okay.
I was really frustrated because I felt
like anyone can see how touching
those interviews are
in the emergency room,
A mother when she starts to cry
'cause she's working,
trying hard to take care of her kids,
she's scared for the health
of her child.
We see that on a daily basis
in the emergency room.
But then I'd go to Congress,
and I would announce the numbers
and pronounce how important
food stamps are.
And I just felt like the legislators there
were not really listening,
that they could not relate.
I felt like
it's time for me to be quiet
and give the power
of framing the issue
of food insecurity and hunger
to the people who are
experiencing hunger themselves.
Everybody say, "Washington!"
Washington!
Here's the plan.
At 11:30,
the reception at the Senate.
Senator Casey will speak,
I will speak,
Tiana will speak,
Barbie will speak.
And every time that you have
an opportunity,
give your ideas for change,
for what you need
for the success and healthy life
of your kids, okay?
These guys are the ones
who make it happen.
I was the first mother
in Witnesses to Hunger,
and I didn't think anyone
would take us seriously.
But I am here to let everyone know
that just because we live
where we live,
and come from
where we come from,
doesn't mean that we're not smart.
It doesn't mean we don't
have potential.
It doesn't mean that we not...
We do not want education,
doesn't mean that we want
to depend on welfare
for the rest of our lives.
I want the same hopes
and dreams as everyone
in this room for their children.
We just need the opportunity
to make it come true.
Came from,
and where we're at now
and where we're going to be.
As you walk through the Rotunda
and you look at our pictures,
look into our eyes, see our pain.
Our pictures that you see
in the exhibit
demonstrate
what we go through every day.
This is un...
It's unnecessary.
One of the most important things
about Witnesses to Hunger
is the whole concept of change.
This is not simply
just empowerment for the women.
This is about sincere
and profound legislative change.
I know some
of this stuff is not easy to talk about.
But yet you're down here,
and I am very, very grateful.
And I feel food should be a right.
We have a lot of lobbyists
who come down here
who get well-paid and talk
about other things, so...
You know, you're kind of
a dream come true for me,
because I want people
to descend on Capitol Hill,
you know, and talk about the need
to make sure that we focus on issues
dealing with poverty and hunger
and nutritious food.
Anyway, thank you for coming
all the way up
to the Rules Committee.
Thank you so much.
The Obama Administration
takes this opportunity very seriously.
The administration proposed
an historic investment
of $10 billion in additional
funding over ten years.
As we reauthorize the programs,
have you been able to work
through the budget process
to determine whether
we can pay for them?
Senator, I think it's important
to focus on what the cost of inaction
and inactivity might be.
And as you well know,
Senator, from your experience,
you fund your priorities.
You fund your priorities.
The President
proposed an additional $1 billion a year
to strengthen child nutrition programs.
And he was very clear.
Let's take that money away
from some of
the least justifiable payments
to affluent landholders.
Well, that part of his proposal
died within 24 hours.
Both the Ag committees said,
"No way, you're not touching that."
We want to thank everyone
as we begin the committee's work
to reauthorize
the Federal Child Nutrition Programs.
Hopefully, we'll be able
to work this out.
I hate to pit agriculture
against nutrition,
would seem to be inconsistent.
The Agriculture Committee is there
to allocate lots of money
to agribusiness,
support and subsidize the prices
of other agriculture products,
and we're very sorry that we're not
going to address fully childhood hunger.
We are voting on yet another bill
that calls for the government to grow,
expand, spend more,
and intrude more.
I can't help but be reminded
of the fact that my friends
on the other side of the aisle
have borrowed countless
billions of dollars
to pay for tax cuts
for millionaires and billionaires.
They have no problem
with doing that.
The critical investment this bill makes
are completely paid for
and will not add 1
to the national debt.
The fact that they call it
the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act
and then, at the same time,
scoop money out
of the food stamp program,
that to me is a paradox.
You can't just, like, push a tiny bit
of mashed potatoes
from one side of the plate
to the other and say,
"Okay, now we have fed you."
It's not a victory.
You're taking money out
of the mouths of poor people,
and, yeah, you're putting it
toward a good cause,
which is child nutrition,
but why are we...
Why are we making this choice?
The great temptation in Washington
is to always take
something away from those
who, frankly,
can't defend themselves.
I think we spent maybe $700 billion
on the banking and insurance bailout,
so $4.5 billion is really just
a fraction of that.
It's kind of symptomatic of how lopsided
things have become in Washington
as a result of special interests
that frankly control a lot
of the Congressional agenda.
As long as we have a system
where corporates
can fund election campaigns,
we're going to have legislators
who are more interested
in corporate health than public health.
It's just appalling.
You know, if another country
was doing this to our kids,
we would be at war.
This is, you know, it's just insane.
And it doesn't have to be that way.
These children,
all of them, are Americans.
And all of them are hungry.
One of the most poignant things
that occurred during the 1960s
to really put hunger
on the national agenda
was a special hour-long documentary
by CBS in 1968.
Here for CBS Reports is Charles Kuralt.
Food is the most basic
of all human needs.
Man can manage to live
without shelter, without clothing,
even without love.
But man can't remain alive
without food.
We're talking
about 10 million Americans.
In this country,
the most basic human need
must become a human right.
It galvanized
public opinion in such a way
that President Nixon and
the Democratic leaders of Congress
decided they had to do something
about hunger at our time.
The moment is at hand
to put an end to hunger
in America itself for all time.
The past ten years now,
the federal government
has spent billions of dollars
fighting hunger in America.
They expanded
the food stamp program
to make it a national program,
they expanded
the elderly feeding programs,
they instituted
a school breakfast program
to go along
with the school lunch program
which had gone back to the 1940s.
It showed that public policy could work.
Political will could work
to make a difference in our country.
Regular Americans rose up
and demanded
that we create a modern
nutrition assistance safety net,
which almost helped us almost
end hunger entirely by the late 1970s.
Joining us
this morning from Washington,
Jeff Bridges, the national spokesman
for Share Our Strength,
and also the group's founder
and executive director Billy Shore.
Welcome to both of you.
Thanks for joining us
this morning.
Good morning, Kyra.
- Thank you.
- Jeff, let me start with you.
You've been passionate
about this for a long time.
I know that you founded
the End Hunger Network back in 1983.
- Mm-hmm.
- Tell us about this new campaign,
the No Kid Hungry campaign
that launches today.
We're in dire straits.
We have 17 million of our children
who are living in homes
with food insecurity.
And I believe no child
in America should go hungry,
and by taking this pledge,
I'm adding my voice
to the national movement
of people who are committed
to end childhood hunger
in America by 2015.
Back in the early '80s,
when I went to a seminar
about ending world hunger,
hunger was pretty much handled
in America.
We had food stamps
and the WIC program
that were really
keeping hunger at bay.
And then these programs started
to be underfunded.
And I figured, well, you know,
it's a little difficult to be telling
some other country
on how to handle hunger
when we're not handling it
ourselves.
We virtually eradicated hunger
in America in the 1970s,
but it's back with a vengeance.
People look back
on the Reagan years,
and particularly during
the recession,
and they saw several things happen.
There were a lot of tax cuts,
so the government's tax base shrunk.
There was a big increase
in defense spending.
And so how is
that going to be made up?
It was made up by cutting the budgets
of a lot of social programs.
So at a time that need was
going up more in the country,
they cut the programs
that made them less.
And what popped out
of that equation?
More hungry people
on the streets.
The '80s created the myth
that A: Hungry people deserved it,
and B: Well, we could really
fill in the gaps with charities.
And so we had a proliferation
of emergency responses.
Soup kitchens, food pantries,
moving from literally a shelf
in the cupboard of the pastor's office
to an operation with regular hours.
Something changed
during that period of time.
There developed this ethos
that government was doing too much.
And more importantly,
the private sector's wonderful.
And let's feed people
through charity.
We have basically created
a kind of secondary food system
for the poor in this country.
Millions and millions of Americans,
as many as 50 million Americans,
rely on charitable food programs
for some part of meeting
their basic food needs.
431 and 451 for backpacks
for this week.
Every Wednesday we
go down and get a trailer full of food
from Food Bank of the Rockies.
The problem that we run into
in small towns is that the income level
has gone down,
the jobs are minimal,
the second-
and third-generation people
are having to leave the area
to find work.
Ten years ago or so,
when we started this,
my wife and I had
purchased an old Suburban.
And I remember driving it
to the food bank
and being excited about backing up
and filling that Suburban
with 10 to 15 boxes of food,
and thinking we were really
making a difference in our community.
And after a year and a half,
we bought a little single-axle trailer
that we could put
two pallets of food in it.
And we thought we had really
arrived, that that...
We could certainly meet the needs
of the community
with two pallets of food.
And four years ago,
a gentleman from our church
donated this trailer and now we're
doing four pallets twice a week.
And it's... It's amazing
how the need
has increased over the ten years.
About a month ago,
we had three officers including myself.
However, due to budget constraints,
we're now down to just me.
It was always
kind of a prideful thing
that I never needed anybody's help.
Unfortunately, I haven't received
a pay raise in four years.
And what I used to spend
on a month in groceries
now gets me about two weeks.
I have utilized
Pastor Bob's food bank.
The way it makes me feel,
it's very humiliating.
Uh, well, incorrect.
That... It's not humiliating.
It's, um, very grounding.
The stereotype
of food banks is always
for the unemployed
or the disabled,
people that can't go out
and get a job.
That's not always the case.
Sometimes in life,
you just get to points
where you need a little extra help.
Ranching is a good part of life.
It's a lot of work.
But it's an honest...
Actually, it's an honest trade.
But the way the economy
and everything has gone south,
I have had to go find
another job out of the house.
So I work on the ranch
from 7:00 in the morning
till 3:00 in the afternoon.
And then
at 3:00 in the afternoon
till 11:00 at night,
I got down and clean the school.
# And a secret #
# In an envelope #
It's a good job.
It's close to home.
There's a lot that you...
You worry about.
Your kids is the main one.
And that's part of the reason
I did take a second job
is so I can help buy groceries
and put food on the table
for my kids.
Come on, dogs.
Don't touch and don't look.
Cool.
Pastor Bob and his wife,
they do give 'em
a warm meal after school.
- Hi, Daddy.
- Howdy.
It helps, you know.
It's getting harder
to try to figure out
how to make all your ends meet.
But you gotta do
what you have to do
to help support
what you created, you know.
All right.
Do you need help?
- Nope.
- Okay. Thank you.
I'll grab three off there as I go by.
I was one of those kids
that was hungry.
Growing up, it was difficult,
because I could see
how difficult it was
for my mother when she would return
from the food bank.
It was embarrassing.
I remember
I was in second grade,
and just remembering
opened up the refrigerator
for, like, the first time in my life
and going, "Wow."
I'm one of those kids,
you know,
that you hear about on TV,
or you see about on TV.
There was, like, two carrots
in the bottom of the crisper.
And I just remembered thinking,
"What are we gonna do?"
I deliver food bags every week
from the food bank at our local church.
It's uncomfortable sometimes,
so what I've tried to do is
get an understanding
of their schedules,
and then drop it off
and leave it,
so it's not that added pressure.
And I know that they're thankful,
because it's gone
when I come back.
I know how I operated.
It wasn't very good.
I didn't do well in school.
I didn't have that great
of attendance.
And I just felt like
I kind of lived
under this umbrella
of feeling inferior to others.
It messes with you.
It's just still always there.
Rosie just really struggles.
You know,
she was significantly behind.
But despite all of that,
she tries so hard
to be so positive all the time.
One of my own personal
missions was
to try to see if there was
something I could do
that could make a difference.
And I asked her if she'd be
interested in the food bags.
And she was very excited.
We could do with another one.
You want cake for breakfast,
right, Rose?
- Yeah.
- Yeah? All right.
- I'll take that in for you.
- Okay.
You guys got your hands full.
- I'll just walk it in for you.
- Okay.
All righty.
- How are you, Miss Nichols?
- I'm good, thanks.
You ready for your last big week
of school before Christmas?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
Okay...
Blah. There we go.
Okay, a bunch of graham crackers.
Mrs. Nichols
comes about once a week.
It's eight bags that she brings.
There might be potatoes.
There might be bread.
You know, right now, I think we have
30 jars of peanut butter.
That's just one of the things
that Mrs. Nichols brings out right now.
There's always
some kind of soups,
Spaghettios, a lot of snacks.
I like these.
Ooh, now these ones...
Sometimes, I will admit,
I do feel a little bit guilty
bringing 'em food bags,
because it's starch,
it's lots of carbohydrates,
it's lots of sugars
and other chemicals.
Grandma, we got apple pie bars.
Oh, awesome.
Apple pie.
In a perfect world,
you would want it to be
as well-balanced
as you could make it,
but the reality is
you get what you can.
And giving something is
certainly more than nothing.
And so you just
kind of find a little bit of...
I guess reassurance in knowing
that you are making a difference,
even though it's not perfect.
Okay. Give these three...
- Are you gonna take 'em all?
- Yeah, I got 'em.
All right. Thank you.
- Good job on your basketball game.
- Thank you.
That's something
that's extremely important.
The churches and the community
groups that do hand out food
are doing an incredible service
to this country
and to the children that are
experiencing hunger.
But that's just a quick fix.
That's for today and tomorrow,
maybe for next week.
We call it emergency food.
It's no longer emergency food.
This is called chronic use
of a broken system
for which people cannot
be held accountable.
If people are
gonna be relying on this food
as a significant portion
of their food intake over time,
then we do need to pay attention
to what kind of food
are they getting?
Charity is a great thing,
but it's not the way
to end hunger.
We don't fund
our Department of Defense
through charity, you know.
We shouldn't, you know,
see that our kids are healthy
through charity either.
There should be, you know,
something that...
In our country, in America,
the richest country in the world,
you know, we should, you know,
take care of our kids.
We have tried
1,000 points of light.
We have tried it in spades.
But with all that expansion
of private feeding,
all of that effort,
especially by the faith communities,
we have not reduced hunger.
Our legislators only think
of the cost of hunger in America
as being what it is
that they spend on food stamps.
But the genuine cost
of hunger in America
is way, way higher.
- Hey, Mr. Broom.
- Hey, Doc. How you doing?
I gotta get a forklift
to get your chart out the door.
What do you think?
You gotta roll around on a cart.
Yeah. How you doing today?
- Not too good, Doc.
- Uh-oh.
Where have you noticed
the swelling at?
My legs again.
And the fluids get all riled
and jump up, and I just...
Oh, I mean, I be scared
to lay back down.
I just sit on the side of the bed
and halfway doze.
Okay, for the last couple of days,
how have you been doing?
Uh, if I walk ten steps,
I get out of breath.
Obesity makes
all other medical problems worse.
High blood pressure, diabetes.
We probably diagnose
new cases of diabetes
four, five, six times a week.
This is Dr. Booker.
I need a telemetry bed
- for Mr. John Broom.
- John Broom.
Congestive heart failure.
I'm going to directly admit him.
He's gonna bring his orders
by the emergency room.
Those younger people
who are developing those diseases
at an early age are gonna get
the end-stage complications
a lot earlier.
So education is what
it's gonna take
to get people to do
what they need to do
to reduce some of these problems.
And we need to start it
very early on.
At the bathroom, line up at the door.
I am Odessa Cherry.
I am a second-grade teacher
here at Jonestown Elementary School.
Love it. I've been teaching
over 17 years.
I love the babies.
I was diagnosed with diabetes.
And it's been about a year...
almost a year.
And when I was first diagnosed,
I told the doctor,
"I don't want the pill.
"I think I can do it with just diet."
And so that was the one thing
that really
got me to thinking about
what you're eating.
Oh, check it out.
Did y'all see that?
Is that what...
Is that what sparked
y'all talkin'
about what he said, huh?
'Cause I was wondering
what it was.
And when the change started,
everybody was, like,
"What, no fried chicken?
"No fried fish?"
That was the biggest thing,
that fried fish, 'cause we love
catfish in this area.
I mean, if it's not fried,
it's not fish, so...
And it was just, "I don't eat that.
"I don't eat this. I don't like that.
I don't like..."
And I'm like,
"Have you tried it?"
And I have many of 'em say, "No."
And so I'm saying, "Try it."
And I'm trying to force myself
to try it because,
you know, this is new to me.
And once you eat it, it's like,
"That's not bad."
Now, that helped me
to understand the impact
that we can have on our children.
And the younger they are,
the better.
Awareness is the beginning.
You did good. Yeah.
This is a kitchen.
This is our table,
and this is our microwave.
If you want tea,
just push "hot water,"
And then it goes.
And it's really cool.
And this is our box
where we put all of our food
that we get from the food bank
and from Miss Nichols.
And this is our bedroom.
Excuse me...
It's not that pleasant.
This is where I sleep,
right on this pillow.
This is where my sister sleeps
with her dog.
And this is where we have...
put all of our clothes.
When my friends come over,
I get embarrassed
because they have
bigger rooms than I do.
And, well,
we try to keep it clean.
And I put flowers up
because I just wanted
to decorate it and make it look nice.
Kitty.
Is it that people are going hungry
because of a shortage of food?
No, it is not.
The reason
people are going hungry
is not because
of a shortage of food.
It's because of poverty.
Then, all of a sudden,
you're in a different question.
You're not asking,
"Why is there insufficient food?"
Which is this sort of
very beneficent question.
But it turns out to be,
"Why are people poor?"
And right there,
you're in a political question,
and one that's
far more difficult to answer,
and involves asking
questions about power,
and about, you know, class,
and about inequality,
and the persistent inequality
in this country.
And that's a much harder
question to ask
than the question about,
well, is there enough food in America?
To which,
clearly, the answer is yes.
Barbie, you got it.
So have a seat.
And, Mariana, I'm gonna
stick you over here.
From WHYY in Philadelphia,
this is Radio Times.
I'm Marty Moss-Coane.
And today on the show,
what does it mean
to be "food insecure"?
I mean, we shouldn't be surprised
that there are...
that there's hunger in this country,
when you look at the level of poverty.
And I wonder
just how much of a...
sort of denial there is out there.
And, of course, we are still,
as I think's true today,
the richest country in the world.
And this disconnect
between all this wealth
and people that don't have enough.
If you look at
the food insecurity numbers
in this country,
85% of those families
that are food insecure have at least
one working adult in the household.
So from my perspective,
how do people get out of poverty?
They get...
They earn a living wage.
And so I think we need to turn
it around to accountability.
It's government accountability.
It's also corporate
accountability for ensuring
that people get living wages.
I mean, it sounds like
a lot of emotional stress
and strain that you both have.
- The humiliation of it?
- Yes.
Being labeled
as "low income" is shameful in itself.
It's the reality,
but you don't want to admit
that, okay, I am of low income.
Or because of
we're of low income,
we have to stand in this line
and receive food from whoever
wants to give it to us.
- So I think... That's what...
- That's tough.
Yeah, how about for you, Crystal?
It seems like America has
turned a blind eye
to the fact that people are hungry
on a day-to-day basis.
It's not just women.
There's men
who are raising their children.
There are two-parent households
who go to work every day,
and still have
to turn to public assistance
to sustain their families,
which makes no sense.
Which is our bus?
We gotta watch out for the bus.
Do I got toothpaste on my face?
No? Okay.
No.
Yeah.
- No.
- Mm-hmm.
Mm-mm.
- Yep.
- Uh-uh.
There's a difference in your step.
Like, when you're on your way
to work,
and you know that
"I'm going to work now..."
It's a different type
of walk that you...
A different pace to your walk.
Okay.
Thank you for calling
the food stamp hotline.
How can I help you?
Okay,
so according to the information
that you've given me, it's telling me
you're eligible
for about $16 in food stamps.
Do you have any other questions?
It's hectic sometimes,
but I just look at it
as though every day
I have the chance to put food
in someone's mouth.
Not directly, but I know what it's like
to be turned down.
And now I'm on the other side,
so it makes me feel good.
Oh, my God, I'm gonna cry...
- Y'all want this?
- What?
- No.
- Why not?
Because.
Um, eat, um... sandwich.
All right, but you need
to eat food.
- We ate food.
- What you ate?
We ate chips.
That's not food.
That's it.
I want to eat, too.
- The meatballs.
- Who's gonna help me?
- Me. Me.
- Wait, Mommy.
Hold it.
Anyone can sit there
and tell you,
"Oh, I've been through this,
I've been through that.
"I got through it."
Yeah, I've been through this,
I've been through that,
I got through it,
but if you open my fridge,
I'm there again.
Five days into the month.
And I'm gonna be there
next month
and the month after that.
It gets tiring.
Oh, we're good. Let it go.
I was gonna help you again.
- No.
- That's it?
Lalani.
When I was on food stamps,
I didn't have to worry
about my kids not eating.
It was just
how can I make it stretch?
You know, I might have
to take a little bit from this day.
It was more
about balancing everything,
where now we have nothing.
I literally have nothing left.
Like, I'm gonna give 'em
a Hot Pocket for dinner tomorrow.
What am I supposed to do?
What do I give them?
Yeah.
We have to put a system
in place where people get...
and have enough time... to get
themselves back on their feet.
It's not like you get a full-time job,
the next month
you're off of food stamps,
and all is... all is well.
It doesn't happen that way.
We don't have a food policy
in this country to address hunger.
We never have.
We have a welfare system
that is very limited in its ability
to get people on their feet,
which is what you really want,
is you want to empower people
to be able to make enough money
to buy their own food and
take care of their own needs.
We don't have anything
that does that.
We sort of have
this love-hate relationship
with poverty and the poor.
On the one hand, you know,
we have a wonderful history
of helping others
and a lot of good rhetoric.
"Bring us your struggling masses
yearning to be free."
This is the land of opportunity,
and we care about one another.
And we do in many ways.
But our care is
always predicated on the fact
that we're worried
that somebody else
is getting something for free
or something they don't deserve.
In our country,
we put a lot of emphasis on self-reliance,
on everybody fending
for themselves, liberty.
And those are all great strengths.
But as a nation,
it has not been our strength
to do what we can to reduce poverty.
"Corduroy is a bear
who once lived
"in the toy department
of a big store."
I feel like America
has this huge stigma
of how families are supposed
to eat together at a table.
But they don't talk about
what it takes to get you there.
Or what's there when
you're actually at the table.
Bring that bucket.
There's probably
600, 700 chefs here,
all really committed to helping
this problem that we have
with child obesity and hunger.
- Here, grab the leaves...
- Okay.
And break them in pieces like this.
- We're gonna toss on the spinach.
- Oh, look at that.
We're working to make sure
that families and communities
across this country have access
to quality affordable food.
It's so good.
If they get a first taste
of broccoli and green beans
and peas and things like that,
it'll stick with them for life.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
There's a lot of education
that needs to sort of happen again
around food,
and around what is healthy.
And there has gotta be a way
where healthy food...
fruits and vegetables...
are made accessible
and less expensive
than they are now.
We're spending $20 billion a year
on agricultural subsidies
for the wrong foods.
$20 billion
would go a very long way
to promoting
a healthy, educated population,
starting with kids.
Now, close the book.
Put the book away.
Thank you. All right.
I want you to feel this
so you can see
the texture of the outside
of the honeydew melon.
Uh, try not to drop it.
Look at the color.
You kinda feel the weight.
What is this called?
Honeydew melon.
We are now...
We are pushing, if you go to the store,
and Mom asks you,
"What you want?"
Don't say chips.
Say, "I want fruit."
And so we're looking
for inexpensive healthy foods.
So that's what we're working
on now in the classroom.
And we're looking for alternatives.
Is it rough or is it smooth?
- It's smooth.
- It's smooth.
I brought it so that when they see
it in the store, they can relate.
"That's a honeydew
not sliced already."
Everybody ready?
Get set... and taste.
What adjectives would you use
to describe the honeydew melon?
Good. Juicy. Everything.
Would you buy one?
How many of you would buy,
or would like to buy a honeydew melon?
I'd buy two of 'em.
You would buy two.
You love 'em, huh?
But now,
what about how you like 'em
compared to chips?
Which one do you like better?
Honeydew! Honeydew!
Honeydew! Honeydew, baby!
Let's take a vote.
How many people love
the honeydew,
would prefer the honeydew
over the chips?
If you said...
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12.
Ooh, we're way over 50%.
I love it. I love it. Mm-hmm.
I think I go out of my way
to try to take that burden
and that worry away from kids
because I was there.
And teaching, it kind of
puts you in that natural place
to say, you know, yes, obviously
I can make a difference
in the education of a child,
but I think it's
so much more than that.
It's that personal connection
that goes beyond that.
Last year you missed...
twenty days of school.
This year you've missed seven days.
And five were
when you had pink eye
and you couldn't be at school.
And I know you wanted
to be at school.
- Yeah, I did.
- Remember when I stopped by
your house
and we talked about that?
- Yeah.
- So do you think being...
My dream is to be
an honor roll student.
My other dream is, um...
Have you heard of the Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition?
I always have a dream every night
that they would
come tear down our house,
let us go for a vacation.
I just wish they would come
and actually rescue us
from our house.
But we don't have a story
like they do.
I want my kids to have
a better life than I do.
Have more food,
have a bigger house, no mold.
And they get to do
what they want to do
and what they need to do.
And never be hungry.
Like, you take 'em
one at a time.
We know we can't help everyone,
but we can help one or two.
So you take those
and look at 'em, and go, "Wow.
"In that life,
we made a difference."
It's about patriotism, really.
Yeah, that's what it is, you know?
Stand up for your country,
you know?
How do you envision
your country, you know?
Do you envision it...
a country where one in four
of the kids are hungry?
What I'm hoping is that maybe
an increase in the problem
is part of the solution.
That that's gonna finally
wake people up to how...
You know, what dire straits
we're in here with this.
Do we just continue to give
more cans of food
through the food drives?
That's not the answer.
The answer is widespread
governmental programs
that are focused
on the human being.
I think Americans, basically,
want to do the right thing.
There's a lot of issues
that we could all struggle with
for a long time
we wouldn't know how to solve.
I don't know how to solve
the climate change problem,
you know, by myself.
I don't know how to come up
with a vaccine for AIDS.
I don't know how to,
you know, end terrorism.
But when it comes to hunger
in this country,
we know the solutions because
we've proven it in the past.
We all have a stake in this,
and we really need
to reclaim agricultural policy
as a policy on behalf of us all.
We're wasting billions of dollars
by not spending less to fix hunger.
We all understand
that the government
will do the right thing only after
every other possibility
has been exhausted.
We need to bring government
to the right thing much more quickly.
But the only way to do that
is not by, you know,
saying, "Well, you know,
"government will take care of it,"
but by making government care.
We need to make this
an issue where
if you're not with us
on ending hunger,
then we're not gonna
be with you on reelection.
I mean, if making sure
people have enough to eat
is not an important issue,
then I don't know what the hell is.
"'You are where you come from.'
"It is a quote that is said very often.
"If your mother was a single mother,
"you will be a single mother.
"If no one in your family
was a high school graduate,
"you will be the next one
to follow in those footsteps.
"Have you ever been surrounded
by the people you love,
"like your children,
but feel completely alone?
"Have you ever been in a home
with open doors,
"but feel trapped?
"Have you ever been
in a neighborhood
"with constant yelling,
screaming, gunshots,
"and fighting,
but are so accustomed to it
"that it puts you to sleep?
"I know what it's like
to have your children
"look at you in your eyes
and tell you they're hungry,
"and you have to try
to force them to go to sleep
"as if they did something wrong.
"Take time and learn
a little from each of us,
"because you never know
where tomorrow can take you.
"Remember us...
remember people like us
"that are here in the United States
"that need help,
that are not receiving it adequately.
"If we switched lives for a week,
could you handle the stress?
"If we switched salaries
for a month,
"would you be able to live
and still keep your pride?
"Are you aware of my hope
and my determination?
"Are you aware of my dreams
and my struggle?
"Are you aware of my ambition
and motivation?
"Are you aware that I exist?
"My name is Barbara Izquierdo,
and I do exist."
# Look out, Ma, look out, Pa #
# Look at that horizon #
# Something's out there
kicking up dust #
# The storm is coming fast #
# Look out, sister,
look out, brother #
# The river's gonna be rising #
# Something we've been waiting for #
# Oh, it's here at last #
# It's been a long #
# Long time coming #
# It's been a long #
# Long time gone #
# Let's all sing, let's all dance #
# Stomp our feet in that red clay #
# Come on out
of those old brown fields #
# Watch 'em turn to gold #
# It's been a long #
# Long time coming #
# It's been a long #
# Long time gone #
# Ooh, it's been a long #
# Long time coming #
# It's been a long #
# Long time gone #