My family and I just viewed A Place at the Table, and it is one of the most exceptional documentaries we have seen in recent times. The film should be celebrated not only for its striking portrayal of hunger in the United States, but also for its innovative use of networked and social media.

A Place at the Table was simultaneously released in theaters, iTunes and On Demand. It was in the last format that we were able to view it. The producers’ innovative approach does not end here. At the end of the film viewers are invited to text “food” to 77177. We did and we quickly received a couple of text messages. The first explained that more messages with updates on the project would be sent unless one texts “stop.” The second message asked to take action by learning more about hunger in one’s locality. This can be done by entering a zip code, which is then followed by a text that provides the number of people affected by hunger in one’s state. We live in Pennsylvania, so we received a message stating that 1,850,140 individuals don’t always have enough to eat in the state. In the same message a link is available to the website http://actioncenter.takepart.com, which we visited and learned more about the project.

Read More.