Feeding America Commercial Real Stories of Hunger: Mikel 2025

VIDEO feeding america Real Stories of Hunger: Mikel TV commercial 2020 • Mikel is a proud husband and dad of five. He's also a veteran. Since coming home from a deployment in Iraq, he has suffered from post-traumatic stress and is disabled. He takes jobs as a mechanic and handyman, but still has trouble providing food for his family. "I worry about how we're going to pay rent, the bills or how we're going to get what the kids want for supper," he said. 00:00 while I was in the army I was told that 00:04 everything was going to be fine and from 00:06 2006 on I haven't been the same person 00:09 as I was before I deployed 00:17 after coming home everything that was 00:21 normal before seems like it's changed 00:23 I'm not the same person I have 00:25 nightmares every night I'm just haunted 00:29 by the past it just makes life so much 00:32 harder so much more difficult I live in 00:40 West Monroe Louisiana with my family 00:43 being a dad I'm able to see everything 00:46 through my children's eyes it's kind of 00:50 opened a door to be able to put my 00:53 symptoms and everything that I've got 00:56 going on kind of tuck it away to be able 00:58 to get down on my level and then having 01:02 a different perspective kind of helps 01:04 you understand that things are okay 01:07 compared to the way you view them my 01:11 wife and I have given up a lot for our 01:12 children to close on our back I've 01:16 handed over my food on several occasions 01:18 and we've always tried to make sure that 01:22 our kids had it better than what we did 01:24 growing up without the trips to the food 01:27 bank it would've been a lot more 01:29 difficult than what it was 01:32 my dad chose alcohol over me and I 01:37 refused to do that with my children 01:44 [Applause] 01:45 the dream that I've always wanted was to 01:48 be able to open up my own mechanic shop 01:49 and not have to worry about where things 01:53 are coming from next and to be able to 01:56 live that normal happy life in 01:59 comparison to how we are now if I get 02:02 mad at the world I can go out of the 02:03 hood of a car diagnose and repair and be 02:06 comfortable it's kind of like a break 02:09 from reality 02:14 my kids come first my wife I'm second 02:17 and I comfort and honestly I think 02:20 that's how every family should be 02:22 [Music] 02:28 Oh- advertisement spot 2020