Starting tomorrow, we are going to have hungry kids in America.

This has never been acceptable in my lifetime.

Ever.

Hunger was a big issue for me when I was 16.

My struggle with anorexia was just a part of it.   Despite my own constant hunger pangs, ones I clearly chose and chose to ignore in my disordered thinking, I was deeply troubled at the thought of those who suffered from real hunger pangs, those children in poverty who went hungry in America.

It was such a compelling concern of mine that when it came time for me to be Confirmed I chose to talk about Hunger in America in my speech to the congregation. In Reform Judaism, the ceremony of a Confirmation is a public affirmation and celebration of one’s commitment to Judaism, Jewish values, and social justice.

In May of 1971, I stood proudly on the bima ( podium)  of my suburban Temple dressed in a flowing white robe that concealed the polyester party-ready white tunic and hot pants that I wore beneath it.

I looked out at the crowded audience; the long pews were filled with smiling well well-nourished, and well-padded family and friends.

With butterflies in my stomach, I glanced at the seated rabbi, who nodded solemnly for me to begin. I spoke strongly but plaintively in my soft teenage voice, explaining that in this richest of all nations, in the midst of our post-war plenty, children were going hungry in America.

Charity, one of the basic principles of Judaism, compelled us to not look away.

The speech I gave on Hunger at my confirmation May 30, 1971

“….But today there are still children in America who wake up hungry, who spend their days hungry, and who go to bed hungry….There are still children who….are sick and get no medicines who suffer accidents and learn to clench their teeth.”

“There are still people, thousands of them who simply do not know what orange juice is, who look upon milk as a very special treat. “

“In other words for thousands of American citizens, both black and white, young and old, Christian and Jew, survival itself can never be taken for granted.

“It is not easy to talk about this- and as a matter of fact, it is all too easy for most of us to put the whole problem aside. Isn’t everything fine with us? Don’t we have most of the good things of life?”

“If we worry about food it is because we have too much of it.…..”

CBS Reports Hunger in America

It was a TV documentary aired nearly 4 years to the day of my Confirmation that opened my eyes to this issue.

In May 1968, CBS aired its powerful documentary “CBS Reports Hunger in America.”

It took this documentary to make the words “hungry in America” come alive.

It told the American people, as only television could, about the plights of some 10 million hungry people.

It shocked a nation.

“Hunger in America” brought the faces of hunger into the living rooms of the country and made the problem all too human.

The moving and horrible scenes of small children suffering from hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases that this country assumed had long been eradicated were filmed in the black belt of Alabama, the horse country of Virginia, the barrios of San Antonio, and the Indian Reservations of Arizona.

It goaded our nation to action to begin to feed its hungry. Hunger became a new focal point in political debates. Activists helped to reframe hunger as an urgent matter of economic justice, racial justice, and equality.

One of the most touching scenes in this CBS documentary  motivated the late Senator George McGovern (D-SD) to become a leader in the fight against hunger

The camera focused on a boy, perhaps 10 years old, leaning against the wall of his school cafeteria, watching the other students eat lunch; the interviewer asks the boy what he gets to eat at school, and the boy says, “Nothing.” When the interviewer asks the boy how he feels watching the others eat, he says he feels ashamed, and when asked why, the boy answers, “I don’t have any money.”

Regarding that  scene, McGovern later remarked, “I said to my family that was watching the documentary with me, “You know, it’s not that little boy who should be ashamed, it’s George McGovern, a United States Senator, a member on the Committee on Agriculture.””

Eradicating Hunger

By the end of 1969, politicians on both sides of the aisle embraced the idea that hunger could and should be eradicated in the United States. At the December 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, President Richard Nixon made a “commitment to provide free or reduced-price lunches for every needy child in America.

McGovern would eventually go on to build a coalition with Republican  Bob Dole to pass the 1977 Food Stamp Act, which established national standards for the program (now SNAP) and removed the requirement that recipients pay for stamps, dramatically reducing hunger in the U.S.

Shame

Today, a tone deaf President and Congress feel no shame in cutting off Food Aid to millions.

42 million Americans who depend on federal food assistance will be in danger of going hungry.

But American citizens are listening, and thousands are donating to food banks.

Let’s make sure we all fill others’ stomachs and hearts.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream