Un-Daily Bread

With Daily Bread, I focused primarily on the impact of globalization on diets around the world, but hadn’t yet told the stories of those who aren’t getting enough to eat. Last fall, I collaborated with the United Nations Refugee Agency to bring awareness to the crisis of refugees fleeing Venezuela. We chose to look not only at what kids and mothers ate during their journeys, but also at what they carried from home, underscoring how little refugees are able to keep from the lives they fled in Venezuela. It’s as if your house were on fire and you only had time to grab a few cherished keepsakes and the barest of necessities. One mother carried her son’s last homework assignment from school, a simple but meaningful detail of a childhood that would otherwise have been lost. Personal details like these stuck with me. The girl who hadn’t eaten an apple in more than three years because a single apple cost 5,000 Bolivias (about $500 US!). The boy who carried around a loaf of bread tucked under his arm after the shoot because he didn’t want to feel hunger again. The mother who fled alone with her youngest child, leaving behind her adult sons because she knew it was the only way. The journey had taken its toll and she was spent. But you could also feel this mother’s determination to find a more hopeful life. With Un-daily Bread, ACNUR raised funds to provide essential medical care and check-ups for these refugees.