Documentary: Food Stamped

     Food Stamped was the result of Shira Potash and Yoav Potash wanting to discover if a family living off of a food stamp budget can eat a healthy well-balanced diet. They discovered that it takes intentional planning, diligent rationing, even then the dietary recommendations are not completely met. Although the food groups were met at every meal, dietary guidelines suggest more than three servings for some of the food groups. Also, suggested calorie intake was not met by either of the participants. 

     The 2010 documentary also featured a select group of Congress representatives that partook in the food challenge. The difference between the Potashs' strategy and the Congress members strategy was an effort to eat healthy. The representatives reported quick processed meals as well as being hungry. This is not too surprising considering one meal would equal $1.16 worth of food per meal. 

     The film also addressed nutritional value of food that is dealt within the educational system. A food program representative admitted that she is often embarrassed about the types of food in her district. Her noble quest included analyzing the food that is advertised to children and finding low-sugar variations of the same brand. The film also featured different ways of promoting healthy foods to the children so that they can educate their families.
     The filmmakers seemed to be biased in the beginning of their food stamp budget challenge. They did not appear too optimistic. However, the video was not completely skewed to one view of food stamps unless backed by either the data or the challenge results. The concept that some farmers' markets accept food stamp credit was new to me. While neat, I would be interested in the same people that did the food stamp budget challenged to either add in this component to the challenge as a supplement to their groceries or as a basis to their groceries.