In New Orleans, Gluttony and Starvation Live Side by Side [View all]

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http://www.alternet.org/food/new-orleans-gluttony-starvation-live-side-side

As 13-year-old Jazz Henry practiced her trumpet in a scene fromThe Whole Gritty City, the recent documentary about New Orleans marching-band students, her mother, Lischunda White, stirred dinner on the stove and talked about shielding her children from hardship – and hunger.

“It’s been times when Jazz has seen me with just enough food for just them and not enough for me. And she knew it wasn’t enough. She would say, ‘Mama, where your food at?’ And I would say, ‘I’m fine. I’m not hungry.’”

“I wouldn’t tell her,” White said, “that it really wasn’t enough and I just didn’t have it.”

Despite New Orleans’ reputation as a city of big appetites, White’s narrative is far too common. A recent study by the Food Research and Action Center found that New Orleanians go hungry more than nearly anywhere else in the United States.