Movie

Angelina Garcia

SOC 122

Word Count: 339

A.H.H.H. Movie: A Place at the Table

       Our group presented the 2012 documentary titled A Place at the Table. The film explores the various facets of hunger in the United States, including: food deserts, the obesity-hunger paradox, school lunches, and the cut of government aid. The film also talks about the USDA's subsidization of ingredients for processed food and not healthy food; this part of the film was something that was new to me. The film follows the everyday lives of many people, including one Philadelphia woman named Barbie who had to travel more than an hour to grocery shop; on top of living in a food desert, as soon as she gets a better job, she makes too much money for government aid but too little to feed herself and her two small children. Another girl featured in the film, named Rosie, struggles with hunger which causes problem for her in school. Overall, I think that the film was very insightful.

         In preparation for the movie viewing, our group created a flier and placed them throughout the Social Science building and the Professional Human Services building. We also did some chalking, writing the information on our film, in the front of the Social Science building and near the front of the library. Very view people attended the film viewing; but fortunately we did have a fairly long discussion. We talked more about the subsidization of the larger corporate farms, which was something that I had learned about from viewing the film. It was enough to get me interested in investigating this practice more thoroughly. I only wish that more people could have been there to help in the discussion. It would have been interesting to hear from someone who is involved in or majoring in agriculture. If I had the opportunity to hold a film viewing in the future, I would schedule it earlier in the semester. Fortunately, the film is available on both iTunes and Netflix, so I plan on telling family and friends about the film and where they can view it.