Food Systems, Ch. 4: The System (2016)

Food Systems, Chapter 4: The System completes the four-film Food Systems series with an in-depth look at home cooking, hunger, origins of poverty, and solutions to a growing food problem. Starting with the creation of a multi-course traditional Indian meal, the film examines how food and cooking shape community, family, and personal histories while also opening pathways to improving nutrition and food knowledge. Throughout these discussions, Lidia Bastianich of the Lidia's restaurant empire reshapes leftover vegetables and stale bread into delicious new dishes. Open House PGH and the Borland Green Cooperative discuss how their intentional communities share cooking and gardening responsibilities to strengthen their communities. But despite the fascinating developments in the alternative food movement, these emerging opportunities require some amount of privilege and access to food. What happens if your access to healthy food is limited? Just Harvest's Ken Regal, Felicia Lane Savage, and others discuss the history of hunger, posing the widespread issue as a symptom of poverty. After discussing the barriers to accessing food, emergency solutions like food banks and 412 Food Rescue along with longer-term educational efforts like Community Kitchen Pittsburgh and community gardens are surveyed.