Eating on a food stamp budget

What can you eat on a food-stamp budet of $3 a day?

Filmmaker Yoav Potash and his nutrition educator wife, Shira, tried to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on that food-stamp budget and filmed their experience in an hourlong documentary, "Food Stamped: Is It Possible To Eat Healthy On A Food Stamp Budget?"

It will be one of the films shown this year in the free Learn and Live Film Series at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.

"Food Stamped," which includes interviews with members of Congress, food justice organizations, nutrition experts and people living on food stamps, will be shown Feb. 20.

The documentary has won awards at multiple film festivals around the country. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, has said: “Food Stamped is a warm, delightful, and entertaining film with a serious message: it’s really difficult to eat healthfully on food stamp benefits even if you are educated, savvy, live near a decent grocery store or farmers’ market, have plenty of time and energy, and are a great cook. Everyone should see this film, especially those who complain about how low-income people use their benefits.”

A second film, "Living Proof," will be shown April 16. It is based on the 1998 book, "HER-2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer," by Robert Bazell, the chief science and health correspondent for NBC News. The 2008 movie stars Harry Connick Jr. as Dr. Dennis Slamon, a UCLA oncologist and researcher who helped develop the breast cancer drug Herceptin from 1988 to 1996.


Both films will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Events Room of the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory Building, 201 N. Main St., Kannapolis. Each will be followed by a discussion led by NCRC scientists and community partners.