CBS’s “Hunger in America”
The 1968 broadcast of Hunger in America returned hunger to the center stage in American politics. References to hunger had been part of the War on Poverty and the Poor People’s Campaign, but the CBS documentary exposed malnutrition as an aspect of everyday life. The program detailed the harmful effects of malnutrition on children’s physical and cognitive development, introducing an 11-year-old child forced into sex work to feed her family, and overturning the fallacy that all malnourished people are skinny. Hunger in America also emphasized the shortcomings of the Food Stamp Program, which fed only 5 million out of the estimated 15 million hungry people in the country. Personal stories added moral and emotional weight to the documentary, providing a shocking yet vital education about the persistence of hunger. And it roused viewers to take action, including a bipartisan array of legislators ranging from liberal Senator George McGovern to conservative Senator Robert Dole.
Museum Map
WISHING
TREE
The Proof is in Our History
- 1.Welcome
- 2.Museum Lobby
- 3.The Age of Mass Migration - Landing
- 4.The Age of Mass Migration - Main
- 5.Immigration from Europe
- 6.On the Breadline
- 7.Beginnings
- 8.An Unequal Recovery
- 9.How did the Food Stamp Program work?
- 10.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Landing
- 11.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Main
- 12.Walk for Decent Welfare (Columbus, OH)
- 13.Televising the War on Hunger - Landing
- 14.Televising the War on Hunger - Main
- 15.CBS’s “Hunger in America”
- 16.President Lyndon B. Johnson
- 17.Senator George McGovern and Senator Robert Dole
- 18.Dr. Jean Mayer and the White House Conference
- 19.1975-1996: The Unmaking of the Great Society
- 20.Government Cheese
- 21.The Welfare Queen
- 22.The Return of the Welfare Queen
- 23.Crises of New Proportions - Landing
- 24.Crises of New Proportions - Main
- 25.COVID-19
- 26.Welcome to the SNAP Café
- 27.SNAP Cafe – Create a meal
- 28.Wishing Tree
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger