The Marcus Foundation
The Marcus Foundation
Advancing Sustainability and
Enhancing Community Food Resources

Denver Screening of A Place at the Table

A Place at the Table opens nationally on March 1 but was screened last week in Denver at an event co-hosted by the foundation and Hunger Free Colorado.

The screening was attended by approximately 150 guests including leaders in government, business, foundation and not-for-profits. Following the movie Jonathan J. Halperin, foundation trustee, moderated a discussion among panelists and the audience. Panelists were Kristi Jacobson (a director of the movie), Leslie Nichols (a teacher in the movie), Dominick Moreno (Colorado State Representative) and Kathy Underhill (head of Hunger Free Colorado). The wide-ranging discussion opened with a moving description by Ms. Nichols of her experiences growing up hungry and now delivering 1500 food bags a year to hungry people in her Colorado community.

The stigma of hunger, the need to preserve the dignity of hungry people on government support, and the daunting problem of 50,000,000 hungry Americans was accompanied by a host of suggested actions people can take to become part of the national campaign to end hunger now. Participant Media and TakePart are spearheading this effort. As the screening coincided with President Obama’s State of the Union presentation, the politics of ending hunger also featured as a prominent topic.

A central part of the campaign involves highlighting successful Americans who were once on food stamps/SNAP, bearing witness to the importance of government support to help people become powerful economic and social leaders in business, the arts, sports, and public service. These profiles can be seen at http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table/snap-alumni and we urge others to join these leaders and demonstrate support for ending hunger now by speaking out if they were ever hungry and on food stamps.

Learn what you can do to help end hunger in America now.