FOOD STAMPED
Funds Needed for Completion: $ 20,000.00
Estimated Completion Date: 08/15/2010
Synopsis
Food Stamped follows Shira and Yoav Potash, a couple attempting to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on a food stamp budget.
Food Stamped follows a couple attempting to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on a food stamp budget. Nutrition educator Shira Potash teaches nutrition-based cooking classes to elementary school students in low-income neighborhoods, most of whom are eligible for food stamps. In an attempt to walk a mile in their shoes, Shira and her documentary filmmaker husband embark on the “food stamp challenge” where they eat on roughly one dollar per meal. In tandem with this experiment, they meet food justice activists, nutrition experts, and politicians who offer their experiences and perspectives on the intersection of food, money, healthcare, and politics. Shira and Yoav consult with a variety of ordinary people living on food stamps and follow them through their routine shopping and cooking dilemmas in order to take a deep look at the struggles low-income Americans face every day while trying to put three-square meals on the table.
Budget:
$ 20,000.00
Project's Financial Needs
The project is currently in final post-production, as well as concurrent initial development of outreach materials including the Food Stamped website www.FoodStamped.com.
We need your support to spread the message of this film. Your tax-deductible gift will enable distribution and promotion. Funds will be used to hire a publicist, produce a Spanish-language version, create closed captioning, develop supporting educational materials, and cover film festival submission fees. With your help, this film will make an even stronger impact on a national scale. Donors at $100 and up will receive a screen credit and a complimentary DVD.
Current stage of production
Production
Estimated Completion Date
08/15/2010
Background
Surprisingly, billions of dollars that are allocated for food stamps go unclaimed every year simply because people are not aware that they qualify, or are too ashamed to apply. The filmmakers aim to highlight these facts in the film, educate viewers about the qualification criteria, and lessen the societal stigma associated with food stamps. Since many individuals who qualify for food stamps do not own computers or have access to the internet, we intend to bring the film and related materials directly to low-income communities through a variety of community partner organizations, such as food justice advocates, public health and nutrition professionals, ethnic minority organizations, youth groups, schools, public television stations, and other partners.
Treatment
In a similar vein to Super Size Me and King Corn, Food Stamped employs humor and a personalized approach while addressing serious concerns about what we eat. The film uses the food stamp challenge as a point of entry to introduce larger themes of health and nutrition, food and environmental justice, and government subsidies for commodity crops. Food Stamped will entertain and engage a wide audience of viewers, from foodies to environmentalists to families just looking to save some money on groceries — and these days, that includes just about everyone. The film will achieve a social impact by helping to remove the shame people may feel in applying for or receiving food stamps, and by empowering everyone — especially low-income populations — to “know and grow” their own food through nutrition education, community gardens, and other innovative programs.
Target Audience
The issues raised in Food Stamped transcend racial, socio-economic, and other cultural boundaries, impacting a wide cross section of the social strata. The producers plan to collaborate with Working Films to involve an array of organizational partners who will use the film to spark change. Working Films regularly facilitates meetings between documentary filmmakers and potential community partners, and together we will solicit the involvement of organizations such as Feeding America, The Food Research and Action Center, the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute’s Center for Food and Justice, and the California Food and Justice Coalition.
Our goals in working with these organizations will include: supporting legislation that increases food stamp allotments, educating the public about health and nutrition, reducing the social stigma associated with food stamps, and encouraging people who qualify for food stamps to enroll. Our multi-platform outreach strategy will allow our organizational partners to select the format of the film that works best for their participation, whether that means hosting community screenings, distributing DVDs, promoting an online video, bringing the film to schools or food stamp enrollment clinics, or coming up with creative new ways to use the film, specific to their infrastructure and audience. Working Films will assist us in obtaining real commitments from the organizations we work with, setting timetables and measurable goals with regard to how organizations can distribute and promote the film through their community forums, email blasts, websites, action campaigns, and other programs.
Listed below are some of the target audiences and types of organizations we intend to partner with, as well as some of the strategies we plan to use. The fact that many of these audiences overlap will only help our outreach efforts succeed, as the film will give a variety of groups a chance to find common ground and collaborate.
FOOD JUSTICE ADVOCATES
People have woken up to the fact that inequities of race and class filter into our access to healthy food and nutrition education — and they have begun to organize. The film will empower low-income populations to “know and grow” their own food through nutrition education projects, community gardens, and other innovative organizations. Along these lines, we envision free indoor and outdoor screenings of the film in or near urban community gardens with information tables set up in partnership with local food justice organizations, helping to directly link the film with opportunities for low-income families to engage in small-scale agriculture and nutrition education. Several food justice and nutrition education groups are featured in the film, and many more will be involved in using the film as a tool to lobby for food stamp reform and to promote community engagement. Our website will include an interactive map with links to organizations by region, such as People's Grocery (CA), Bread for the People (D.C.), the Children's Aid Society (NY), and other NGOs where people can volunteer and make donations. The website will also feature an online petition where users can contact their government representative and demand food stamp reform.
PUBLIC HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
Doctors, nutritionists, nurses, and many other professionals in the world of public health witness the link between poverty and poor nutrition every day. This film shows the uphill battle these professionals face in attempting to encourage their patients to eat a healthy diet, and will help them open conversations with their patients and one another. We intend to work with an educational video distributor to bring the film to universities and college campuses nationwide – especially those with nutrition and public health programs. In addition to marketing the film to educational institutions, we plan to personally attend a series of screenings on college campuses, helping to further generate interest in the topic through discussions with students and professors, as well as through press coverage in campus publications. We have established contacts with UC Berkeley’s Center for Weight and Health, UCLA’s Community Health Department, Bastyr University, the University of New Mexico’s Health Education Department, and Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition. Additional screening venues could include the Network for a Healthy California’s annual conference (a subsidiary of the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which screened King Corn in 2008 and The Garden in 2009 – to an audience of hundreds of public health and nutrition education professionals.
MINORITY AUDIENCES
Ethnic minorities in general, and African-Americans and Latinos in particular, make up a significant portion of low-income Americans. We intend to work directly with ethnic film festivals, public broadcasting's minority consortia, and a wide range of community organizations working with ethnic communities to publicize this film. On a previous project, filmmaker Yoav Potash consulted with PBS’ National Black Programming Consortium and Mississippi Public Television where he helped create content for the Mississippi Blues Trail and B.B. King Museum. We will invite the National Black Programming Consortium to partner with us in bringing Food Stamped to African-American communities nationwide, especially those in the South, where obesity rates are highest. We also plan to create a Spanish language translation of the both the theatrical release and educational editions of the film, as well as the film’s accompanying website. These components will greatly assist organizations such as the National Council of La Raza to educate their target population of new immigrants about food stamps and nutrition.
YOUTH AND YOUTH GROUPS
A separate educational version of Food Stamped with supporting curriculum will engage youth in discourse about government policy, class issues, and health and nutrition. This supporting curriculum will also include a youth-oriented cookbook with affordable, healthy recipes. We intend to raise funds to provide educational DVDs and curriculum to middle schools in low-income school districts at no cost; we will only require a commitment from educators to use the materials we provide. In addition, a youth-centered portion of our website will provide kid-friendly recipes, tips for making healthy choices, and an interactive set of “cool tools” with a graphic interface for kids to track and learn about what they eat, where it comes from, and whether or not it is good for them. We intend to partner with youth-oriented food organizations like DooF and Food What?! to further promote the film and engage this population.
COMMUNITY GROUPS AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
Many community and religious groups are involved in the effort to provide food to those in need. Churches, schools, small and large businesses, and a variety of other organizations often host food drives to benefit local food banks, and some also act as food distribution centers. These organizations can use screenings of Food Stamped as an excellent fundraiser and/or kick-off event for their food drive, and as a tool to educate their congregants about health and food justice. We plan to expand the engagement of faith-based organizations by working directly with National InterFaith Council, Office of Black Ministires, Rabbinical Council of America, and National Clergy Council, and to obtain press coverage of the film on religious television networks such as Daystar and TBN, in national religious publications including Moment Magazine, Tikkun Magazine, Christianity Today, and Guideposts, and in other media geared towards the millions of potential viewers in this audience subgroup.
PEOPLE CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR HEALTH
Many of us have health problems, regardless of our income level. Since Food Stamped looks at the low-income/food issue through the lens of health and nutrition, it will provide information that is of interest to anyone who is consciously attempting to maintain or move towards a healthier diet and lifestyle. This aspect of the film will enable it to gain media coverage from radio and television news and talk shows with health-related programming, in the health and fitness sections of newspapers and magazines, and through websites, blogs, and other media outlets that increasingly need content related to health concerns.
GENERAL PUBLIC (TRADITIONAL FILM AUDIENCES)
America has entered an era of unprecedented obsession with food and all of the trimmings. Cookbooks flood the market; memoirs from chefs and food critics top the New York Times Best Seller list; there is an entire TV network dedicated to the subject. But it goes deeper than just the sensual pleasure of eating. The American public is growing more and more concerned with where their food comes from. While obesity and other preventable diseases are more prevalent in low-income populations, the current obesity epidemic knows no bounds. (And these days most everyone is looking for ways to tighten their belts as well as their waistlines.) The film will appeal to this broad public interest by covering a subject close to everyone’s heart (their stomach), and will encourage audience members to take the "food stamp challenge" themselves to learn firsthand the true value of a dollar in today’s food economy. Meanwhile, the Food Stamped website will engage users with a variety of interactive features to bring them a step further into the subject. The website will include tips and recipes for eating healthy on a budget, and detailed information about the supplemental nutrition assistance program (food stamps), and the U.S. Farm Bill. The site will also feature resource links to government and nonprofit organizations, and an interactive blog for people to share their experiences and views, both positive and negative, with and about food stamps.
Production Personnel
Shira Potash
Shira Potash, head of Sprouts Nutrition, is a certified nutritional educator. She teaches nutrition-based cooking classes to public elementary schoolchildren, helping them to enjoy fruits and vegetables and make healthy choices in their lives. In her private nutrition practice, Shira works one-on-one with clients of all ages to guide them towards optimum health. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Health Education from the University of New Mexico. Food Stamped is Shira's first film.
Yoav Potash
Yoav Potash is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, and the
founder of Summit
Pictures, an independent film and video production company. For
over ten years, he has produced narrative and documentary films that
have aired on PBS and have screened at film festivals worldwide. He is
currently completing a feature length, Sundance-funded, documentary
entitled Crime After Crime, about the legal battle to free a
survivor of domestic violence from prison. Yoav is a graduate iof UC
Berkeley, where he won the university's top prize in creative writing. Food
Stamped is Yoav's first diet.
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