Hungry Americans get A Place at the Table in new documentary

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - What do a police officer, a teacher, a rancher, and a second grader have in common? They all go hungry despite living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Documentary film A Place at the Table, which opens nationwide on Friday, shines a spotlight on the prevalence of hunger in the United States (US) through the personal stories of some of the millions of Americans who struggle to feed themselves and their families.

"There is this perception that it's a tiny marginalised group of people who are facing it, but at this point we're looking at 50 million Americans," director and producer Lori Silverbush told Reuters.

Silverbush and fellow director Kristi Jacobson said that the scope of problem remains largely hidden in the US because people often associate hunger with images of children with sunken cheeks in developing countries.