Stories of hunger where you least expect it are plentiful – yet they are hidden from view.
“In the fall of 1997, I drove up to my $3 million home and saw a small note tacked on the door saying the house was going to be auctioned off in 30 days.... Circumstances like divorce and job loss and health issues can throw any family into poverty. It’s arrogant to think it couldn’t happen to you.” - Molly
In 2016, we launched This Is Hunger, a mobile exhibit in a 53-foot semitrailer that’s touring cities across the country now to illuminate stories like Molly’s and bring this issue out of the shadows.
This Is Hunger exists to put a face on hunger in America. To dispel the persistent myths about about who in America struggles with hunger and why. To inspire action. Because until our nation recognizes this profound problem here at home, we will never be able to rally the political will we need to end it.
When participants go through the exhibit, they’ll sit at a communal table and through sound and images, they will meet real people struggling with hunger. They’ll hear devastating stories like Molly’s. And then they’ll be invited to take action – to join us in advocating for change.
Creating change on a national scale brings the greatest amount of benefit to the maximum number of people. And if we want a long-term solution to ending hunger in America (and that is what we want!), then we must champion effective programs like SNAP (food stamps) and ensure that people in all parts of the country and from all walks of life have access to them. And given the apparent desire of the current Congress to dismantle the nutrition safety net, these priorities must be at the top of every American’s agenda.
That’s what makes This Is Hunger so meaningful. Now more than ever, we must acknowledge how prevalent hunger is among us. Now, more than ever we must recognize the very real reasons that more than one in eight men, women and children in this country struggle to put enough nutritious food on the table each day. Now more than ever, we must be vigilant so that we can prevent millions of lives from being decimated. Now, more than ever, we must engage our policymakers and ensure that they protect the most vulnerable among us – this is our right and our obligation in our democracy and we cannot and must not shirk that responsibility.
We invite you visit thisishunger.org to find out more and reserve your (free!) seat at the table. And we invite you to help us protect SNAP and the millions of Americans who cannot feed their families without it – add your voice here.
Together, we can transform how it is into how it should be.
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