Just perfect...

A Masterpiece!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

Excellent show. An eye opening documentary about the short falls of our ability to provide adequate nutrition for some our most needy members of society. If we all would take a close look, not just at own lives but our friends , family or even our neighbors, we may find how rampant this problem is. Our school lunch program is not perfect and it needs some help. The only way it's going to get help is by people who are willing to fight and do what needs to be done. What if we were to minimize the administration cost, the labor cost and put more money to the cost of a nutritious complete meal. Work as a collective group to end this problem. Please volunteer, make a difference in the lives of our children, give what can be given, care for the well being of the children and our future generations.

Rosie is a little girl who lives with her mother and grandmother in rural Colorado, Rosie's mother works as a waitress, but her meager salary puts her above the limit required for qualifying for food stamps. Rosie's teacher sees a lot of Rosie in her. The teacher was so poor as a child that she had trouble concentrating on her work as a child. The teacher regularly goes to the food bank and delivers food to Rosie and other kids like her.In Jonestown Mississippi, Ree a mother of 4 has to drive 30 miles out of the way to get fresh fruit and vegetables, because Rhee lives in a "food desert", a place where fresh food and vegetables can't be delivered. Also in Jonestown an 8 year old girl named Tremonica is obese. How can kids living in poverty be obese?Barbie, a single mom with two kids living in Philadelphia has to figure out how to feed herself and two kids on the small government stipend. But some things are looking brighter. Barbie testifies with 40 other women in Philadelphia go to congress and win a slight increase in the food stamps program, and then Barbie gets a job, but does employment necessarily mean a better life for her and her children?A Place At The Table is a mostly effective documentary with a definite political point of view, but when it's not pouring out statistics and sounding like an ad for Jeff Bridges and his pet project on hunger, when it concentrates on poor people who have to live on food stamps, then the stories are compelling. It shows how difficult it is to actually feed children on a food stamps stipend .But it also shows how the poorest children become morbidly obese. The government actually subsidizes huge agrobusinesses, while the family farm is almost extinct. The Congress gets big campaign donations from the agrobusinesses and the agrobuissnesses make processed junk too cheaply, cheaper than fresh fruit and vegetables, and that's why poor kids are obese, because all their parents can afford is cheap, processed, junk food. The problem is that the lobbyists who give the biggest donations are the ones the politicians listen to, and poor people don't have a lobby. We have one party who has created a huge bureaucracy that the poor can't navigate, and another party who thinks government is the enemy and must be eliminated. They are both wrong, the bureaucracy must be streamlined, and the money must be sent to the people who need it the most, not the lobbyists with the biggest checkbooks. We actually took the problem of hunger seriously in the 1970's, starting with Nixon. Yes, I said Nixon. The film points out that surprising fact. Nixon and Carter did a lot to eliminate hunger in America, but we haven't taken the problem seriously since. No one should ever be hungry in America, the faith community has done heroic work in feeding the hungry, the film also stresses this point, but people of faith can't do it alone. They need help from a fully functional cohesive government to set standards, and fully fund programs so those standards are met. But the American government is so dysfunctional right now, it cannot solve the simplest problem.For reviews that leave you hungry for more, visit my blog, reviewswithatude.wordpress.com

Not earning enough money to be able to feed yourself and your family is NOT the issue, it's a lack of education and discipline. The fact that the most obese segment of our population is also the poorest and "hungriest" is SO frustrating. These people buy soda, sweets, fast food etc. but then claim they don't have enough money for vegetables...bull. It's just an excuse to say poor me and still indulge in gratifying yet unhealthy foods. I go to the store and buy 5 POUNDS of carrots for $5. 10 pounds of beans for $12. 5 pounds of brown rice for $3. This is a TREMENDOUS amount of nutritious food for only $20 that can feed me for a WEEK. This is obviously not ideal since we're still missing green leafy vegetables and fruit, but it's WAY WAY better than the junk food most of these people were eating. I say again, it's not a money issue, it's an education and discipline issue. Beans are packed with protein, rice gives you energy, and vegetables give your body the needed nutrition. Cookies, cakes, soda, chef boyardee, fast food etc. are all addiction foods that are very costly on your wallet and body, the solution is so stupidly simple that all the people complicating it should be ASHAMED! As a side note, the waitress in the first scene was complaining about how little her paycheck was every two weeks, shame on her for not telling the whole truth. You don't waitress for the paychecks, you do it for the cash tips, how many cash did you accumulate in two weeks? Didn't want to mention that one did ya? The same family also said they don't buy vegetables anymore because it's too costly, well then, STOP making cakes and pies and start buying carrots and celery if you really care. Otherwise, don't act like you can't afford it when the reality of the situation is you don't want to buy the healthy stuff because it doesn't taste as good.

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.