March 29, 2026

1920s Italian food: Bean and greens soup, with historical photos of people cooking and eating.

30 Foods Italian Immigrants Actually Ate in 1920s Little Italy, NY

We are all aware of family traditions, but we rarely know what our ancestors ate a hundred or more years ago. This film, enriched with still photographs of the 1920s, shows what poor Italians ate in New York City. Spoiler alert: you won’t see pizzas, cannolis, or Braised Beef Short Rib Agnolotti. But you will see a lot of spaghetti, beans, greens, and soup made from bone water. (The America We Remember; 2026; 63’)

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Scarecrow

All Videos, Food Ads / National Food Museum

This beautifully produced 2013 animation highlights the inhumanity of factory farming and sterility of manufactured foods. The film features Fiona Apple’s cover of “Pure Imagination.” The film resonates with current criticisms of ultra-processed foods, but was actually an advertisement, disclosed in the final seconds, for Chipotle restaurants and it tied in to a game sponsored by that company. It is worth noting that Chipotle’s signature offerings, though made without questionable additives, may be sky-high in calories and sodium. (Chipotle ad; 2013; 3’22”)

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TED Talk speaker discusses the Ghazipur landfill in Delhi, India, highlighting methane emissions.

Methane: Food’s Climate Villain

All Videos, Environment/Climate / National Food Museum

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, but it is also short-lived. In this TED Talk, Marcelo Mena, a professor and former environmental minister in Chile, explains why methane is such a villain and what we need to do to reduce emissions. Currently the CEO of the Global Methane Hub, Mena argues that one of the solutions to the methane problem is in our food system. We need to cut back on beef, reduce food waste—from farm to our dinner tables—and conduct more research to find more effective and permanent solutions. (Ted talk, 2023; 9’20”)
Methane is a major contributor to global warming, but by eating less meat and reducing food waste, methane emissions could be greatly reduced.

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Huge Jewish deli sandwich with pastrami and sauerkraut

“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli

All Media, Other Food Museum, Exhibits / National Food Museum

Created by the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles and shown in many cities, this exhibit examines how Jewish immigrants, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, imported and adapted traditions to create a uniquely American restaurant and reveals how Jewish delicatessens became a cornerstone of American food culture. (New York Historical, 2022, 5’13”)

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Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in the iconic "I'll Have What She's Having" scene from When Harry Met Sally.

“I’ll Have What She’s Having” from When Harry Met Sally.

All Videos, Pop Culture & Comedy / National Food Museum

Jewish delis were once located primarily in Jewish neighborhoods and served primarily Jews. Though they have largely disappeared from the urban scene, the warmth and hospitality they represented made their way into the broader American experience. This is the iconic scene (about faked orgasm) in an iconic delicatessen (hence it was featured in the I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Jewish Deli” museum exhibit, listed elsewhere) in the classic movie (When Harry Met Sally).

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Microplastics

All Videos, Nutrition and Health / National Food Museum

Plastics are used in every corner of society, from food containers to toys, plastic wrap to automobile parts, and thousands of other products. Plastics come in countless forms and offer huge conveniences, safety, and durability, depending on their use. However, plastics dumped into the ocean or landfills inevitably degrade into minute particles that work their way up the food chain and enter our bodies. There, microplastics may be disrupting hormonal systems, causing cancer, or other health problems. The question is whether individuals and manufacturers can reduce their use of plastic, and whether scientists and engineers can devise replacements that are multi-functional but degrade safely. Those, clearly, will be challenges for the rest of the 21st century. (UN Environment Programme; 2019; 1’56”)

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Black Hunger in America

All Media, Hunger / National Food Museum

This chilling 1968 CBS-TV documentary shows the shocking depth of poverty and hunger among Black Americans. One of the underlying causes of that hunger is the unemployment resulting from the mechanization of cotton harvesting, which increased from two percent to eighty percent in recent years (coupled, of course, with racism). Along with distressing interviews with utterly impoverished (and hungry) people, especially in Alabama, narrator Charles Kuralt decries the fact that U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to expend hundreds of millions of dollars that were earmarked for relieving hunger. And it emphasizes that in 1968 people with little money had to pay for food stamps (now called SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). (CBS-TV; 1968; 14’1”)

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Hunger in America

All Media, Hunger / National Food Museum

This documentary demonstrates effectively that all too many Americans go to bed hungry, and it highlights the efforts of heroic people who are trying to alleviate hunger at the local level. Volunteerism helps fill food pantries, fund food banks, and provides free hot meals to the needy. All those approaches help, but the film does not suggest the more important policy approaches to ending hunger, including strengthening such federal programs as SNAP, WIC, and school meals. (Skydive Films; 2014; 51’51”)

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Eradicating Hunger in America

All Media, Hunger, Hunger / National Food Museum

Hunger may be more common in many African countries, but hunger still stalks far too many Americans. This video, aired as the covid epidemic was fading away, says that in 2021 10 percent of American households lacked adequate access to food, and that food insecurity levied high costs on the country. Hunger has been a concern of policy makers since at least the late 1960s, and the federal government invests well over $100 billion annually on programs such as school meals, WIC, and SNAP. What could be done to provide adequate incomes to prevent hunger in the first place? What would doing so cost? Why has one of the wealthiest countries in the world not made the eradication of food insecurity (and poverty and homelessness) a top priority? (CNBC; 2023; 12’37”)

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Bill Gates gesturing while speaking, discussing productivity and hunger solutions.

Bill Gates: Improve Productivity, Reduce Hunger

All Media, Hunger / National Food Museum

Improving agricultural productivity and reducing hunger in Africa, Bill Gates argues, will require a system-wide approach. Better seeds (from conventional breeding and genetic engineering), more fertilizer, reducing food waste, and other strategies should help many African nations. But will the global community and the nations themselves commit to implementing such an approach? Gates’ goal, says this 2015 video, is to abolish hunger by 2030, but that clearly is not going to happen. (The Verge; 2015; 2’50”)

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