On the very day the sequester is set to take effect, the documentary film “A Place At the Table” will enter theaters—attempting to give Americans an idea of the widespread problem of food insecurity.
Right now, 50 million Americans are food insecure. And when the cuts kick in at the end of the week, it’s expected that 600,000 women and children will be dropped from the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Many public officials have tried to live by the food stamp program, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Rep. James McGovern, who said after a week-long trial: “You really can’t” live on the $3-per-day allocated by food stamp programs.
Can anything be done to help? Filmmakers Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson have some ideas. They say that our country has been able to fix this problem before, during the Depression. A combination of Americans pressuring their representatives, as well as providing “adequate” funding for programs that already exist, could be a start. Watch the video to hear the filmmakers prescriptions for change.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW's senior congressional correspondent and the host of "Way Too Early." She is the author of "Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet."