'Hungry Now' Documentary Film Connects Food Insecure Kids to Homeless Adults

Where does your food come from? Some people raise chickens. Other folks grow fresh produce on a farm while their neighbors go fishing for lobster and work several jobs to make ends meet. Then, there are those who visit food pantries and soup kitchens if one is available in their town. If you have a picture in your mind of the types of folks who source their goods from the latter, you may be surprised to learn that people from all walks of life frequent such places.  

HUNGRY NOW directed by Alan Kryszak premieres 3p.m. on November 13 at the Collins Center for the Arts. This is a Free event. No ticket purchase is necessary to attend.At least that’s the case at Manna Food Pantry in Maine, where they feed the working poor and people with fixed incomes, as seen in Hungry Now, an upcoming documentary feature film directed by Alan Kryszak. 

 Filmed in Coastal & Downeast Maine over a 2-year period, Hungry Now traces the tragic path where a fresh-faced child starts below the poverty line, and lands with stability or chaos, depending on what lies between his or her middle school and adult years. 

Alan worked with several student crew members from University of Maine at Machias to make this film, looking to connect some dots between food-insecure kids being supported by parents and teachers, to the sketchy shadows off the road. Through direct voices of “the hungry, the homeless and the helpers,” Hungry Now sets out to answer everyday questions about topics from poverty to food deserts to why the grocery shelves are empty.  

"We eat more food than we can produce," says one of the men working at a slaughterhouse as he offers insight on cost-prohibitive issues that the industry deals with, why the supermarkets are low or out of stock and how the supply chain could improve if more residents purchased local meat, directly from butchers. 

Also catch the broadcast premiere of HUNGRY NOW directed by Alan Kryszak November 24 on PBS/Maine Public Television at 9p.m. At the food pantry, it’s not uncommon for the all-volunteer staff to meet someone who has to choose between food and gas for their car to get to work. Yet, one of the most interesting aspects of this film is that whether someone is doing well or are down on their luck, most of the people you will meet think that the next person has it worse than them.

That was the case for a man who’s been homeless following a job-related accident and has since been living on $800 a month for disability. He passed up a food card so that it could be given to a couple near a dumpster, including a mother who had previously dealt with heroin addiction.  

Then there’s the matter of food waste, the Native American recalling having to choose between child abuse and food, and other factors that lead many people to struggle to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and a home. “It's kind of sad being 58 years old and having to rely on a food pantry because you're broke,” says one woman who was living in a domestic violence shelter. Her money was going toward bills, including medical expenses.  

One of the things that stood out about this film is the reminder that food insecurity affects more people than we may know, including many students who get most of their food from school and adults, some who are parents that still have a hard time putting food on the table even when they’re working multiple jobs. As part of the University of Maine’s “Right to Food” film series, Hungry Now connects the struggling child and homeless adult who seem to walk their whole lives uphill, in a nation of wealth and promise. 

Hungry Now premieres 3p.m. on November 13, 2022 at the Collins Center for the Arts, followed by its broadcast premiere at 9 p.m. on PBS/Maine Public Television, November 24, 2022.