can be done to help them. They also provide mothers who struggle to feed their children with opportunities to share their stories and to offer their solutions. One of the mothers even told her story at a White House meeting on hunger in 2012. Dr. Chilton says the research and stories are important because they can change people’s attitudes about hunger, which, in turn, can change the world. “I don’t feel free or completely happy when the people around me are hungry and not free,” says Dr. Chilton. “My freedom is tangled up in other people’s freedom. It makes me feel more human.” She says people are hungry for many reasons. Many people have lost jobs and can’t find work. Others may work, but their jobs are not paying enough to meet all their needs. People who don’t have money often have to make terrible trade-offs, says Dr. Chilton. They may need to choose between food and rent or between food and the electrical bill. Mariana Chilton, Ph.D. Fixing hunger starts with changing attitudes Dr. Mariana Chilton wants to wipe out hunger. She has seen the toll it takes on children and their families. One story sticks in her mind. Many years ago, when she lived in Oklahoma, she met a young teenager through a friend of hers. Her friend saw how hungry the boy was and would often invite him for dinner. Before the boy went home, her friend would give him extra plates of food for his family. Whenever the boy had a little money of his own, he would buy cheap snacks such as soda and chips. Over time, he gained a tremendous amount of weight because of his unhealthy diet. The extra weight put so much stress on his heart that he died when he was 26. Dr. Chilton now runs the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at Drexel University School of Public Health. She and her Drexel team research the impact that hunger has on people and what