'The trouble with writing about hunger is I’ve never felt it...'

The Giving Table and a group of food bloggers created Food Bloggers Against Hunger  to bring attention to the documentary A Place at the Table.  The film is not only the anchor for Bread for the World's 2013 Offering of Letters, but is being used broadly by a broad range of organizations and individuals to to  raise awareness about hunger and nutrition concerns in our country.

Food Bloggers Against Hunger challenged people who blog regularly about food and cooking to put together a piece about the issues raised by A Place at the Table and post their blog online on April 8.  I would like to highlight a piece from Nashville blogger Jennifer Justus, author of the blog A Nasty Bite and food culture reporter for  Nashville's daily newspaperThe Tennessean.  She is also author of the Food Lovers' Guide to Nashville.

Here is how she starts her post:

"The trouble with writing about hunger is I’ve never felt it. Ever.

Yeah, I’ve skipped meals and dieted. I’ve lived on just juice for a couple of days. 

But I’ve always known that the next meal could happen whenever I wanted. To be truly hungry is something I’ve never known.

Maybe that’s part of why it’s hard to get our attention on hunger and food insecurity issues. It’s something that feels too far away, and it's something we can compartmentalize to the weekly free meals for the homeless down at the church. Someone else is taking care of it, right?

But when I saw “A Place at the Table” at The Belcourt [in Nashville], it got my attention, it made me cry, and then it made me angry."

As part of the piece, the author shared a simple recipe from the Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, made with beans, collard greens and other ingredients.   The ingredients are simple, which makes the cost low.

But her point is that even the cost of these ingredients is higher than the daily allotment of $4 for a person on food assistance. This is a great post, and I recommend that you read the full version.