Hunger in America?

I don't know how you can possibly keep up with all the media there is around you here in the 21st Century. I suppose you just don't - the more time I spend in the 21st Century, the more I just stay inside some limited range of what I'm comfortable with, and/or I get into a rut and just watch the same kinds of things from the same 'channels'.

When I listen to a new 'channel' once in a while, I get an interesting and often much needed jolt.  I just watched two things almost back to back.  Wow, the differences were made even more stark when watched so closely together. Movie whiplash...

I watched "A Place At The Table" (currently on Netflix).  It is a movie about hunger in America and it is very well done.  I suspect that, if it challenges your belief system, you'll be able to find fault in some area or another but, overall, it looks to be pretty accurate.  How is it that, in a country with more than enough to eat and more than enough resources (as the movie points out, this country still makes the claim of being "number 1", of "best"), we have so many hungry people?

The other movie I watched was "Margin Call" (also on Netflix) about the 2008 financial melt down through the eyes of one specific large financial company, and specifically through the eyes of a very small group of their top leaders.  I watched this one first, and then, as I was watching "A Place at the Table", I was struck how the leaders at the top of the financial company in "Margin Call" had such a 'hard night and following day' when they were 'struggling' with what they would do when they learned that their bad decisions had left them extremely 'vulnerable'.  Their answer? Pass the buck. Sell off all the junk to unsuspecting buyers.  And in the end, none of the really high up 'leaders' ended up hurt (those would be the people from the movie "A Place at the Table"). In response to a question from a colleague about what their severance package was going to be like, someone (who was going to be 'sacrificed' by being fired for their part in the bad decisions) said: "It better be very good". And it probably was. And, in the end, no one was held accountable for the mistakes they made.

It isn't "very good" for about 50,000,000 people in this country.  And while faith based response has skyrocketed, it is not keeping up.

"A Place at the Table" reveals the surprising connection between hunger and obesity, and on who it is that is hungry (spoiler alert: many of them have full time jobs).

Now what? If you want to get your church involved in the many and various faith based responses, Wheat Ridge can help. And this Grants Directory gives you a look at what else is going on through our  current grant recipients. (If you look under the heading "Topical Areas" you can search based on a specific interest.)