Christina Koch looks for what type of beans she would add to the rice to cook for dinner, while shopping at a neighborhood corner store that lets her buy on credit until her food stamps come in at the start of the month. Koch participates in the "Witness to Hunger" program, in which a local researcher has given 42 women videocameras to chronicle how difficult it is to feed their children well.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Christina Koch had no electricity or gas because her bills were so far overdue. She cooked on a hotplate with electricity borrowed from the neighbor in the rowhouse next door, who let her thread a jumbo extension cord from a kitchen window into Koch's bathroom. Last month, the neighbor was evicted and the current was turned off, leaving Koch to use candles for a few days until her relatives pitched in to pay her bill.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
While Koch relied on the electricity from the extension cord from her neighbor's house, her nieces, Cherlyann and Elizabeth Prater, eat dinner with her children Jesus and Dale.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Two-year old Jesus Nieves eats rice and beans, a dish that family has many nights to make the food stamps last longer.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Christina Koch and her son Dale, 5, play after a pizza dinner. Koch lives in Northern Philadelphia and has to consider Dale's picky eating habits when cooking.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Koch looks to cook dinner as her fiance, Jesus Nieves uses the laptop computer to write poems. Nieves has had trouble finding and keeping a job but is now employed as a mainentance worker.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Koch, with her sons Dale and Jesus, prepares to walk to the corner store. She receives $650 in food stamps each month, but the money always runs out.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Jesus and his brother Dale play in the street in front of their North Philiadelphia home. Koch's older son, Dale, she said, "asks me all the time, 'Mommy, can I have a snack?' I look into his brown eyes and say, 'Mommy doesn't have it.' I can't run to the corner store every time he wants a snack."
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Koch pleads her case to the Philadelphia Water Department on the phone, while her son, Jesus, cries for attention. The water was turned back on after the bill was paid in the summer.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Koch studies her classwork before walking to pick her kids up from the day care center. She just went back to school in October to learn computer support technology and, at last, get a GED.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Koch wants a more secure life for her family. But when her academic program ends, she first will have to repay the $8,000 tuition.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Koch cleans the top of a juice can with a paper towel while the water was shut off in her house.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
With few extra dollars, Koch purchased a treat for her kids on the way home from the day-care center: pizza. Usually, when the food stamps run out partway through the month, she buys on credit from Indio's Mini Market, a few blocks away, until new ones come in.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Christina Koch is kissed by her niece while sitting on the porch. President Obama has pledged to eliminate hunger among America's children by 2015. The White House's Domestic Policy Council convenes weekly meetings involving several agencies to brainstorm about ways to curb hunger, bad nutrition and obesity among the young. But administration officials have not yet given details about how they want to pursue the goal. They say that should be part of a debate in Congress, scheduled for next year, over a renewal of the nation's main child nutrition law.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Andrea Mitchell checks the canned goods in a china cabinet in her dining room to see what to make for dinner. Soon after her food stamps arrive, Mitchell has lots of food for her family -- Steak-Umms, chicken, apples, carrots, string beans, peaches and more -- but food often runs low late in the month.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Andrea Mitchell's godchild Symir Brown prepares to fix a bowl of cereal as her son Quaisir Wright Mitchell finishes his bowl as a snack. Sometimes, late in the month, there is cereal in the house but no milk.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Quaisir Wright Mitchell finishes his bowl of cereal as an after school snack.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Mitchell and her daughter, Anajyha, 12, sort clothes after coming home from doing wash at the laundromat. Sometimes, Anajyha stops eating before she is full, because she wants to leave more for her mother. " I don't want to have a big meal, because I want it to last," Anajyha said.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Tyjuas Mitchell, who lives sometimes with his family, fixes his son's bike in front of their rowhouse in a Philadelphia neighborhood called Strawberry Mansion. Mitchell has been going to school to become an electrician after losing his job in February at a warehouse where he packed food for local schools and hospitals.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Mitchell, 32, takes home about $250 every two weeks working after school at a city recreation center and collects $170 every two weeks in unemployment after losing two other part-time jobs.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Mitchell will often eat just one meal a day to stretch the food for her daughter and two sons.
Mark Gail-The Washington Post
Gallery Credits:
Photo Editor, Producer Sam Funt
