By Fresh Fruit Portal journalist Edward Vernon

With so many complex and widespread issues in the world today, is it even worth one person bothering to try and make a difference? Surely the scale of these problems is simply far too great for a single individual to have any meaningful effect?

Narayanan Krishnan

Like many others, I am guilty of these kinds of self-limiting thoughts. This lack of belief and determination is what is addressed so touchingly by Jesse Roesler's 2013 documentary The Starfish Throwers, which tells the stories of three optimists who have made an inspiring difference feeding the poor, and whose impact is felt far beyond the people they contact. 

One of these individuals is a young girl named Katie Stagliano, who at the age of eight planted a cabbage seed she had received from school in her garden. Now, I recently tried growing some cherry tomatoes from seed in my garden, and from my three plants I achieved a rather unspectacular yield of 10 very average-looking tomatoes – it's not easy.

Katie's cabbage, however, grew to a whopping 40 pounds, and was able to feed close to 300 people at a soup kitchen where she donated it. Moved by the number of people who were able to benefit from the single cabbage, Katie decided to set up her own vegetable garden at home with the sole intention of helping those in need.

The documentary also follows former chef Narayanan Krishnan in India, who was born into the high Brahmin caste but now spends his life providing food, shelter, and even baths to the destitute homeless. This, of course, came with much initial shock from his parents, who felt he needed to see a psychiatrist. But when Krishnan insisted in bringing his parents out with him to see how he was affecting people's lives, they were overwhelmed by what they saw and heard and changed their minds completely.

Allan Law handing out sandwiches

The other compassionate individual we see in the film is retired school teacher Allan Law, whose home is filled with a dozen freezers containing hundreds of sliced loaves of bread. Law now spends every night 'without exception' delivering a staggering number of sandwiches to Minneapolis' homeless, who spend their nights on the streets after the shelters close. He has earned the full respect of those living on the street, and the delight in their eyes when he visits them on his nightly rounds is deep and genuine.

While The Starfish Throwers is heartfelt and beautifully made, it is by no means a typical feel-good film pushing its message across too aggressively. The compassion on-screen speaks for itself, and the film focuses as much on the givers' actions as the motivation behind why they have dedicated themselves to such lives of raw unselfishness.

Perhaps the most touching aspect of the film is seeing just how easily such positive ideas can spread. After Katie's initial soup kitchen success and subsequent vegetable garden in her home, she started an organization called Katie's Krops, which has helped dozens of similar vegetable gardens around the U.S. get off the ground and help feed those in need.

She now grows a wide variety of vegetables, including broccoli, eggplant, zucchini, squash, bell peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and even some blueberries.

"I know a lot of kids have other things that they like to do, but I think if they got to experience gardening more they would find out how cool it is and how many people can be fed if you donate your produce," Katie said.

Katie Stagliano with her 40-pound cabbage

Something else the documentary does particularly well is achieve a suitable level of balance between the three stories, which complement each other rather than vying for attention. Roesler also manages to seamlessly weave the tales together in a way that helps the film's ideas transcend the different generations, geographies and personal circumstances of the three individuals.

It should be said, the film could touch a little more on the negative effects experienced by the three people living such unique lives - we see briefly that Katie had some problems at school for being 'different' to the others, and she received email and from someone who had heard of her work and believed she was not helping the homeless by giving them something for nothing. But maybe the lack of focus on negativity is a part of the message.

Overall, The Starfish Throwers sets itself apart from many other documentaries by not being critical of those who do not act in the same way as the individuals shown. There are no guilt-tripping undercurrents, but rather a lovingly presented interpretation of how the world could look if everyone were to care just a little more for those in less fortunate positions than our own.

The Starfish Throwers makes its U.S. broadcast debut on Saturday March 21 at 8pm ET/PT on DirecTV's Audience network.

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