March 29th: The Line and Food Insecurity

     Today's class was emotional for me because we watched the video "The Line" featured on 60 Minutes. The film hit close to home because it was filmed in Appalachian Ohio. Many people do not realize that hunger and food insecurity is occurring in America, much less in Ohio right outside of our small college town bubble of Ohio University. Listening to the interviews with people who must wait in line for free food was heartbreaking for me, mainly because of the sadness and feelings of helplessness in their faces and their voices. I could not even imagine growing up in a household where $74/week must pay the bills, gas to get to work, and provide food for a family of 4 or more. The most surprising thing to me was that many of the people waiting in line for food were part of the working class. Even hard-working individuals are not able to provide enough for their families and resort to food pantries, and other free or reduced cost food programs. Especially after working on a project dealing with food insecurity and delivering food to low-income and poverty-stricken homes, this was very eye-opening to me and allowed me to witness these issues first hand. More programs and assistance is needed and I hope that in the near future, the amount of hungry individuals will decrease and more people will become aware of this serious issue millions of individuals are currently experiencing.