On Tuesday, March 15, A Place at the Table will be screened at the UUFDC at 4:30 pm. Please bring a donation of non-perishable, healthy food items or a cash donation for the local food pantry in Sister Bay.

Hunger isn’t just a problem for starving children in distant third world countries. It’s a very real issue for many people here in the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world. Fifty million people in the United States – including one in four children – suffer from hunger and do not get enough to eat on a regular basis to be healthy and active. This film follows three families struggling with food insecurity:

Barbie, a Philadelphia single mom struggling to make ends meet for her two children; Colorado fifth grader Rosie, who has trouble concentrating in school because she’s hungry; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories in the foods her hardworking mother can afford.

The stories examine the key factors contributing to the hunger crisis in America, showing how our nation’s food distribution system, social support programs and even well-meaning charitable organizations allow the cycle to continue. Ultimately we see how hunger and obesity pose serious economic, social and cultural implication for our nation and how food access issues could be solved once and for all if the American public decides – as we have in the past – that making healthy food available and affordable is in all of our best interests.