After producing the film “Poor Kids”, Lauren Mucciolo has a very interesting view on child poverty in America. She got to have the hands on experience of working with families living in poverty for over a year, and because of that Lauren was able to give us a new view on poverty. Because Lauren was fortunate enough to become extremely close with the families, she was able to share things with us about their situation that we could not have found out through facts and statistics. What really struck me is that Lauren really stressed that all of the families that were followed in “Poor Kids”, were poor beyond their control. They could not have helped their situation without support from others. For example, one of the girl’s father was the only one that could support his family of five, and because of his inconsistent job, he was unable to do this. There were no jobs for him in their hometown, so their impoverished situation was practically inevitable. There was no way for any of the families to better support themselves, because all of the parents were doing their best. They were trying to find jobs, but there were little to no opportunities for them to be employed. I also really loved that Lauren told us the current situation of all of the families. I found it really powerful that despite all of the help that these families had because of being a part of the film, they are still in the same financial state as they were before. This really proved to me that once you have been impoverished, the cycle is hell to break.
