Hertzberg’s Heroes: Vol. I, Issue VIII
MAZON’s This is Hunger
Welcome to Hertzberg’s Heroes! Every month, Team Hertzberg will highlight an organization or individual who exemplifies heroism through their dedication to making life better for the San Fernando Valley. Have a Hero to suggest? Submit your idea to Senator.Hertzberg@sen.ca.gov!
MAZON is an organization dedicated to ending hunger in the United States and Israel. Earlier this year, our Deputy Chief of Staff Barri Worth Girvan visited MAZON’s exhibit “This is Hunger” in Encino with one of our interns, Adolfo Arellano, a UCLA graduate and San Fernando Valley native. Several staff from MAZON welcomed Team Hertzberg to a tour of the exhibit, which travelled around the country before becoming a permanent installation in the Valley.
The installation itself is a single dimly lit room with a long dining table. Lights shine down onto the tabletop, making it appear as if the tables are set with empty plates; projector screens surround each side of the table. The exhibit shows films of real people telling their stories of how hunger shapes their everyday lives and outcomes.
One of these people was a veteran, a man who said he had trouble finding work after leaving the service and struggles to put food on his family’s table. There was also a woman who couldn’t afford to choose to eat healthy meals and a child who talks about how his hunger wakes him up at night. These are not stories, but real people, and there are so many more that struggle with food insecurity in the United States.
The message from MAZON’s exhibit stayed with Team Hertzberg long after. According to data from 2014–2016, 11.8% of all Californians struggle with food insecurity, which rounds out to over 4.5 million people. Over 2 million people in Los Angeles County are food insecure, meaning that 1 out of 5 people in the area do not know where their next meal is coming from.
After leaving the exhibit, Barri reflected on the lessons learned that day: “I thought this experience was incredibly powerful and I was thinking about it long after I left. The exhibit puts a human face on the issue of hunger and reminds us that this issue impacts so many different kinds of people right here in our community.”
Our office is no stranger to the issue of hunger in schools. In 2017, SB 250 (Hertzberg) was signed into law, which prohibited school districts in our state from refusing to provide school lunches for students with school lunch debt. This year, we followed up on that effort by passing a bill that closes loopholes that allowed schools to continue providing alternate meals to students with lunch debt. SB 265 now sits on Governor Newsom’s desk awaiting a signature.
Anyone who wants to experience the installation themselves can contact MAZON by phone at (800) 813–0557 or by email at hello@mazon.org to make an appointment. The installation is best experienced with a group so bring your family, friends, or colleagues. Visit mazon.org to find out more about hunger in the United States and how one can help.
