Sean Hruswicki
Foods 12
8 November 2017
Mr. Brett
“A Place at The Table” Questions responses
One example of food insecurity in this film is of an unemployed single mother of two named Barbie. Like so many other unfortunate Americans they had to live off of junk food like chips and ramen noodles because they are cheaper than actual fresh foods like fruits and vegetables. After one whole year of looking for a job Barbie finally found a full time job, this should make her fine now right? Since she now has an income that exceeds the one required in order to receive food stamps. She wasn’t even given time to get on her feet, she just lost her assistance from the government right away even though she has been employed for barely any time at all, and probably, hasn’t even received her first paycheck yet. Another example of a person with food insecurity in the movie was a girl who’s father worked on a ranch, but also had to work as a janitor at a school because he wasn’t getting enough money from his ranching career. To cope with food insecurity the girl had lunch made by the school and went to a food kitchen hosted by the church that took place every Wednesday evening. Like so many other unfortunate Americans she and her family has to resort to buying junk food which is much more affordable that fresh fruits and vegetables that actually have a good nutritional value. I think people who are uneducated are more at risk of being food insecure. Mainly because they have a lower chance of getting a great job to supply themselves with adequate nutrition, but also because if they are in a struggle for money they may not know how to acquire resources and help from the government and other food assistance programs such as food banks. Young single parents are also at high risk because they can’t just leave their children and go to school in order to seek a better future for his or her family. My personal reaction to the move is I felt bad for a lot of the people but I was not surprised that so many people are food insecure in America. I am well aware there is a huge amount of people that don’t have enough to eat even though America has more than enough food to feed its people. I was not really surprised by any of the information presented. If I was in a position to directly influence food insecurity I would do a few things, first I would find a way to cut down on food waste, in 2014 a study by the USDA revealed that 31 percent or 133 BILLION pounds of the 430 billion pounds of food went to waste. If we cut down the food waste by only 25 percent we could still be saving billions of pounds of food. The second thing I would do is make fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable. I understand it kind of makes sense that fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive because they actually have a good amount of nutrients but the prices are ridiculous. Fresh fruits and vegetables need to be more affordable of people who are not fortunate enough to afford them will just keep eating junk food and going down the road of diabetes, obesity, and early death