Did you see my post about A Place At The Table? Did you watch the film? Watch it, and then immediately watch Food Stamped.
If you’ve followed along, the issues of quality food and hunger are close to my heart – and it is my hope that this is a topic is one that other people look at.
In “Food Stamped” Shira & Yoav Potash take ‘The Food Stamp Challenge’ (which seems to match the name of what a number of folks on Capitol Hill experimented with). For one week they shop & eat on the average amount of money that someone receiving food stamps has to use – which is about $1 per meal for an individual. They took this further by making a few ground rules that the food must be nutritious:
- Every meal must include protein, whole grains & fruits/veggies
- To buy as many organic items as they could afford
- To eat as little processed foods as possible
- At the end of the week submit their diet record to a registered dietitian for a nutritional evaluation
Through their film they interview food justice activists, nutrition experts, politicians, and ordinary people living on food stamps – all to look closely at the challenges that low-income Americans face daily trying to put three-square meals on the table.
Shira is a certified nutrition educator with a Masters of Science in Community Health Education. She teaches nutrition-based cooking classes to elementary school students in low-income neighborhoods, most of who are from families that qualify for food stamps.
Yoav is a graduate of UC Berkeley and has taught film courses at the Bay Area Video Coalition and Academy of Art University. He is a documentary film maker who has produced documentaries & videos for many companies and nonprofits.
