If we discovered that another country was doing this to our children, we would declare war

Last night we were invited to view a disturbing film and participate in a discussion of what we as a congregation might do in response to a national problem that is quite naturally repeated locally in both urban and rural settings.
A Place at the Table as reported by NPR

Excerpt:
“One nation underfed. Really?
Many of us don't think of the U.S. as the land of the underfed.
In this era of the expanding waistlines, we hear far more concern about obesity than we do about hunger. But the two are more closely connected that many of us realize.
A new documentary, A Place at the Table, peels back the curtain on the problem of food insecurity, weaving together the stories of low-income Americans who struggle to put healthy food on the table, despite the fact that they have jobs.”

Became aware of this group which goes back to the 1980’s

The End Hunger Network 

Our nation has the food and programs in place to end childhood hunger, but consider what we are up against – the stigmas and embarrassment that surround hunger, the challenges presented by acess to healthy food, and the struggle to connect children with the resources they need to thrive.
“If we discovered that another country was doing this to our children, we would declare war.” ‒ Jeff Bridges

It’s as if many Americans of the youngest parenting generations have never learned to cook. And have you noticed that the sections of food markets that offer processed, pre-cooked or tear-them-open-and- throw-them-in-the-microwave-or-in-a-saucepan-on-the-stove-top are so much larger and contain more inadequately nourishing foods … foods one has to have at least some measure of knowing how to cook from scratch?
The hunger problem is about much more than the deluge of processed easy-to-prepare junk meals.

It’s also about an economic and democratic system locked in the hands of agri-business corporations who price and unreasonably market junk food, processed or otherwise, at costs that offer convenience but not relief from many family earners who have far too many economic problems and inadequate income circumstances that are not their fault.

Our mega-monsters worship profit at the expense of the common good. They see ideas of social justice as hostile to the corporate-lobbied and incredibly bass-ackward way of providing for the general good.
We can and do produce more than enough food but then mangle access to food which as a commodity has greater corporate-driven profit motive than that of food as a basic human right based on actual biological need.
We did that. We have allowed businesses in many sectors of our lives and allowed them to profitize at exorbitant price levels that have no justifiable basis determined by the  actual cost of production. 
As much as we can blame corporations which are by definition precisely compared to the amoral function of sharks, we more so must hold accountable our current and past elected government stewards in both parties.
There is nothing noteworthy in pissing all over each other in public displays of political righteousness about a correct point of view and the way America ought to be governed when our politicians themselves - paid and supported by corporate lobbies - have become the biggest perpetrators of child cruelty and actual economic abuse in this country.

They really do this and they know they do. They make decisions that give with one hand and take with the other which causes the people they are elected to serve to stand helpless and watch their own children go hungry.

This because pious political self-styled civic heroes are too busy talking about much less important things. When it comes to feeding the hungry, “How are you going to pay for it?” is not the first question a panel of legislators should ask.

Rather, as shown in the film as spoken honestly, the real first responders should fund their real first priorities rather than the priorities of those who have the most money.