Mariana Chilton, Ph.D., is one of the forceful anti-hunger activists who infuse A Place at the Table with the sense that no-nonsense non-defeatists are at work to put food on the table of every American—rural, urban, mother, child, working or unemployed.

Chilton is the driving force behind Witnesses to Hunger. Part research project and part advocacy exhibit, Witnesses to Hunger places digital cameras into the hands of Chilton’s research partners (not subjects, a crucial distinction) and asks those partners—inner-city mothers who are struggling to keep their children fed—to point and shoot at the issues that most impact them day to day.

“I wanted to find a way to make sure the legislators could feel as if they were in a woman’s kitchen. That’s why I gave the cameras to the women. To have them teach us what we are supposed to be paying attention to, what the depth of it really is, and how they felt that they could get out.”