Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 148

Laura Elizabeth Pohl for Bread for the World

Barbie Izquidero
walks her son and
daughter to school
in 2013.

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To understand the difference between her reactions then and now, we have to realize
what it was like to be in her situation then. A 20-year-old woman raising two children by
herself puts up with conditions like that out of fear. What she feared most then was losing
custody of her children. She’d seen other women lose custody of their children. When their
children were taken from them, it
seemed that the women were being
punished for the crime of being
poor.
Barbie has come far, probably
the farthest of any of the Witnesses. She is going to college,
studying criminal justice, and she
hopes someday to start her own
nonprofit for victims of domestic
violence. It’s a long way from the
days when she used to look at pizza
menus, trying to stave off hunger
by imagining that a delivery
was on the way. Today, there is
scarcely a more poised, articulate
person with firsthand knowledge
of hunger, real stomach-aching
hunger, than she. She has spoken
in front of Congress and at the
White House. As much as anyone,
with the exception of Chilton, she
has become the person most identified with Witnesses to Hunger. Her involvement in Witnesses has catapulted her into
the spotlight of the national anti-hunger movement. In 2013, she and her children were
featured in the documentary A Place at the Table. The film chronicles a year in her life after
she loses a job and struggles to put food on the table for the
family. At one point in the film, Barbie is shown landing a job
“The true experts on
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