News
Chatham grad helps feed hunger awareness in nation’s capital
 |
| ÒWitnesses to HungerÓ participated in Philadelphia's Spring Clean-up. Top row, from left, are Vanessa Grant (staff), Jenny Rabinowich, Angela Sutton, Mariana Chilton (Witnesses to Hunger creator), Imani Sullivan, Whitney Henry, Myra Young and Marcus Gaines. Bottom row, left to right, are Tianna Gaines, Charlene Hunt ( transcriber) and Todd Young. (Contributed photo) |
By Sesame Campbell
WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Witnesses to Hunger,” a photo exhibit featuring images taken by 40 Philadelphia mothers, is on display at the U.S. Senate this week. The traveling exhibit was coordinated by Chatham High School and Haverford College graduate Jenny Rabinowitz, in conjunction with the Drexel University of Public Health in Philadelphia.
Through a technique known as “photovoices,” Rabinowitz provided digital cameras to more than 40 women with young children in the north section of Philadelphia. The women recorded their stories alongside the photos they took. Their focus was to document the devastating consequences of hunger and poverty in the United States, particularly as it pertains to children.
“Witnesses to Hunger is a project that was started through the Drexel School for Public Health in Philadelphia as a way to hear from the mothers of children who are experiencing hunger and poverty, and have their voices heard,” Rabinowitz said. “The artists are 42 mothers who get public assistance in Philadelphia. The pictures are all theirs, the words are their stories that we have recorded through tape recorded interviews.”
The project was developed by Rabinowitz’s supervisor, Mariana Chilton, a professor of Drexel University School of Public Health.
“She wanted to talk to the real experts on the fight of hunger...” Rabinowitz said.
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. heard about the exhibit after Chilton testified in front of the Senate Agricultural Committee on behalf of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.
“She stuck invitations to the Witnesses to Hunger exhibit with the material that she gave the senators,” Rabinowitz said. “Sen. Casey saw the information and invited the mothers who took the photos to meet him in Washington, D.C. and made it possible for the exhibit to come to the U.S. Senate.”
Rabinowitz said it was difficult to choose from the more than 5,000 photos taken by the courageous women who opened their lives to the observation of others.
“Each photo tells a story and adds to the whole picture,” she said. “It isn’t just about not having enough food to eat, but that hunger is a symptom of poverty which results in poor health, lack of adequate housing, having to raise your children in dangerous neighborhoods. Too often, policies and programs are created without the participation of the people who are most affected. The women in this exhibition deal with poverty and its impact on their children on a daily basis. They are the true experts.”
The mothers come from a notoriously dangerous section of North Philadelphia, an area different from where Rabinowitz grew up.
“What I have learned through this job is that hunger exists everywhere in America. It is something that is not really seen or talked about. In other countries, people can see children who have not had enough food with their stomachs distended. But here in the U.S., the cheap foods, the foods that fill you up, are not nutritious. They are calorie filled. A bag of chips might fill you up, but it doesn’t satisfy your hunger. Has me wondering even in small towns, how much hunger there is.”
Rabinowitz added that the rising cases of obesity, particularly in children from lower socio-economic communities, are connected to poverty.
According to a 2007 statistic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 12.4 million children lived in American households that were “food insecure.” Infants and toddlers in food-insecure homes are more likely to be hospitalized, experience poor health, have anemia and experience developmental delays. The mothers in a food-insecure home will go without eating so that their children can have food. They are three times as likely to report depression as women in homes with adequate food.
In Philadelphia, there are places called “food deserts” — corner stores that offer cheap, high-calorie junk food. These are often the only option poor people have to eat.
“Part of the fight against hunger is to encourage supermarkets and farmers’ markets and other businesses that improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Rabinowitz said. “The most painful and striking thing is that the mothers have said that people who are making laws have no idea of what it is to be hungry or have a child who is hungry.”
In the exhibit are the words of one woman who invites viewers to leave their world and live in her shoes for one day; to see what it is like when they have to tell a child that they can’t go to the store because the food stamps have run out.
“These are the words of mothers who feel as though they are failing their children,” Rabinowitz said. “They hit a brick wall and there is nothing they can do.”
It has been hard for her to work on the project, but she said she feels silly for saying that.
“This is something I can leave at the end of the day,” she said. “I hear these mothers’ stories, I cry with them, but I get to go home, I get to eat my dinner and feel safe in my house. The hardest part for me is knowing that while this is a difficult job, I get to leave. They have to go back home to the same block where someone was shot last week or there is an empty refrigerator. That is what is most difficult.”
The exhibit is on display through Friday at the Senate Russell Building Rotunda. For more information, visit the exhibit’s Web site at http://www.witnessestohunger.org/.
Through a technique known as “photovoices,” Rabinowitz provided digital cameras to more than 40 women with young children in the north section of Philadelphia. The women recorded their stories alongside the photos they took. Their focus was to document the devastating consequences of hunger and poverty in the United States, particularly as it pertains to children.
“Witnesses to Hunger is a project that was started through the Drexel School for Public Health in Philadelphia as a way to hear from the mothers of children who are experiencing hunger and poverty, and have their voices heard,” Rabinowitz said. “The artists are 42 mothers who get public assistance in Philadelphia. The pictures are all theirs, the words are their stories that we have recorded through tape recorded interviews.”
The project was developed by Rabinowitz’s supervisor, Mariana Chilton, a professor of Drexel University School of Public Health.
“She wanted to talk to the real experts on the fight of hunger...” Rabinowitz said.
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. heard about the exhibit after Chilton testified in front of the Senate Agricultural Committee on behalf of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.
“She stuck invitations to the Witnesses to Hunger exhibit with the material that she gave the senators,” Rabinowitz said. “Sen. Casey saw the information and invited the mothers who took the photos to meet him in Washington, D.C. and made it possible for the exhibit to come to the U.S. Senate.”
Rabinowitz said it was difficult to choose from the more than 5,000 photos taken by the courageous women who opened their lives to the observation of others.
“Each photo tells a story and adds to the whole picture,” she said. “It isn’t just about not having enough food to eat, but that hunger is a symptom of poverty which results in poor health, lack of adequate housing, having to raise your children in dangerous neighborhoods. Too often, policies and programs are created without the participation of the people who are most affected. The women in this exhibition deal with poverty and its impact on their children on a daily basis. They are the true experts.”
The mothers come from a notoriously dangerous section of North Philadelphia, an area different from where Rabinowitz grew up.
“What I have learned through this job is that hunger exists everywhere in America. It is something that is not really seen or talked about. In other countries, people can see children who have not had enough food with their stomachs distended. But here in the U.S., the cheap foods, the foods that fill you up, are not nutritious. They are calorie filled. A bag of chips might fill you up, but it doesn’t satisfy your hunger. Has me wondering even in small towns, how much hunger there is.”
Rabinowitz added that the rising cases of obesity, particularly in children from lower socio-economic communities, are connected to poverty.
According to a 2007 statistic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 12.4 million children lived in American households that were “food insecure.” Infants and toddlers in food-insecure homes are more likely to be hospitalized, experience poor health, have anemia and experience developmental delays. The mothers in a food-insecure home will go without eating so that their children can have food. They are three times as likely to report depression as women in homes with adequate food.
In Philadelphia, there are places called “food deserts” — corner stores that offer cheap, high-calorie junk food. These are often the only option poor people have to eat.
“Part of the fight against hunger is to encourage supermarkets and farmers’ markets and other businesses that improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Rabinowitz said. “The most painful and striking thing is that the mothers have said that people who are making laws have no idea of what it is to be hungry or have a child who is hungry.”
In the exhibit are the words of one woman who invites viewers to leave their world and live in her shoes for one day; to see what it is like when they have to tell a child that they can’t go to the store because the food stamps have run out.
“These are the words of mothers who feel as though they are failing their children,” Rabinowitz said. “They hit a brick wall and there is nothing they can do.”
It has been hard for her to work on the project, but she said she feels silly for saying that.
“This is something I can leave at the end of the day,” she said. “I hear these mothers’ stories, I cry with them, but I get to go home, I get to eat my dinner and feel safe in my house. The hardest part for me is knowing that while this is a difficult job, I get to leave. They have to go back home to the same block where someone was shot last week or there is an empty refrigerator. That is what is most difficult.”
The exhibit is on display through Friday at the Senate Russell Building Rotunda. For more information, visit the exhibit’s Web site at http://www.witnessestohunger.org/.
Copyright © 2010 - The Register Star Online