Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 147

CHAPTER 4
It grew to include 40 women. When the photographs began to appear on the website, they
drew immediate attention in Philadelphia and then across the country. In 2009, an exhibition of the Witnesses photos was held in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, DC. The
women who took the pictures were on hand to talk about them. Since then, policymakers,
anti-hunger groups, and the national media have turned to these women regularly, including
when members of Congress threaten to cut funding for nutrition programs, to ask them
to comment on what cuts to these
programs would mean in the communities where they live.
In 2013, the focus of the Witnesses to Hunger project was
changing. The women aren’t just
sharing stories—they are advocating and informing the debate
about policy in their home state
and in Washington, DC. “The
true experts on maternal and
child health and poverty are the
mothers of young children,” says
Dr. Chilton. “They are teachers
with valuable lessons to impart.”36
One of the most valuable lessons their photographs have
taught us is how often hunger is
associated with more than just food: bus stops, medicine bottles, domestic violence, blood
stained streets, unstable housing, homelessness, the tattoo of a murdered father, a child
lying in a hospital bed. To be sure, there are plenty of images of children with loving
mothers smiling over them, the same as in any family. Those are momentary breaks from
the near-constant hardships. These images ought to be on display anytime debates about
food policy appear to be veering off into the predictable or
eyes begin glazing over.
“It is hard to think of
Barbie Izquidero was the first mom in Witnesses to Hunger
a movement for social
to accept a camera. The first picture she presented to Chilton
change that was not
was called “My Neighbor’s Kitchen.” Chilton was shocked. A
led by the people
disaster had struck this kitchen. It was a room in a state of such
whose well-being was
disrepair that the only thing to do was gut it. She couldn’t believe
most affected by the
that anybody was living in such slum-like conditions. Barbie did
outcome.”
not anticipate such a strong reaction. She saw the room as it
appeared to Chilton’s eyes, but it was not an uncommon sight
in the neighborhood where she lived. Today, she understands how the image could provoke
the reaction it did from Chilton. She is outraged at slumlords—and at the city government for
allowing them to get away with this degree of neglect. “That picture was the beginning of the
rest of my life,” she says.37 “Witnesses has given me the blessing to open my eyes and see things
in a different light.”
www.bread.org/institute?

Robin Stephenson/Bread for the World

Rev. Gary Cook, director
of Church Relations at
Bread for the World,
holds up “A Place at the
Table,” the 2013 Offering
of Letters handbook
during a session with
Barbie Izquierdo, at
Ecumenical Advocacy
Days, held April 5-8
in Washington, D.C.
Izquierdo is featured in
the documentary film of
the same name.

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