evening. >> hello everybody and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm david shuster in new york. here are the top stories. it's been a stressful day for some travelers trying to get home for the thanksgiving holiday. conditions for air travelers are improving. drivers though are still being urged to watch out for slippery conditions and poor visibility. here comes the world's largest airline. a bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for the merger between american airlines and u.s. airways. the merger will take place december 9th. spying controversy. according to the huffington

post, ral views. another record breaking day, the dow jones industrial average closed above 16,000, encouraged by a drop in unemployment claimed. the s&p 500 also closed at an all time high. those are the headlines. america tonight is up next in joorlsz analjazeera america andt the news all the time at aljazeera.com. >> on america tonight: food for thought. how much of middle class america teeters just one step away from poverty? and the pain of making families do without. >> i'm not lazy, i work every

day. and to apply for food stamps was -- was a new low for me. >> also tonight, on the move. slowly. as wings and wheels slog towards grandma's we look towards what's ahead for that long trip home. and what's not to love? ball of starch, wrapped in dough and fried. new york's beloved knish, and what's on the menu. >> we could never have imagined the outcry for when they're going to be back.

>> good evening, thanks for being with us. i'm joie chen. as we begin this holiday most closely associated with celebration, with abundance and even excess, it might be a little unfair of us to ask you to stop and consider the worry and the anxiety of many american families on the periphery of the economic safety net. but it is an important moment we believe to think about the growing need of the many americans who are faced every day with a choice between paying basic bills or feeding their families. what do you do when you can't fill the fridge, when you're not sure how you feed your child or your children tomorrow? academics put a label on it, they call it food insecurity and it is a present and growing problem even in our land of plenty. america tonight's sheila macvicar explains this with food for thought. >> the brirl yant family of baltimore are a tight-knit clan.

twins tabby and gabby. >> the big one down there zack not the small one. >> julie and aaron have been together since they were teenagers and in 22 years, they have never spent a night apart. family first is their motto, and their desire to provide for their children is the bedrock of their lives. these days, there are some hard choices to make. >> that's really cheap. $1.77 for ocean spray. >> the brians count five of the 47 million americans currently on food standpoint or supplemental nutrition assistance program, it's hardly enough to keep the wolf from the door. the program just took a big cut. lopping off $50 a month from the brians already tight budget.

>> what does it mean for you that you're in this position? where you have to think constantly about food and your kids and feeding your kids? >> it's hard. it's hard breaking. and it's frustrating at a point because it's like you know, i don't want my kids to ever be hungry. you know and it's really hard -- >> that bothers us more than anything. any bill, anything. if our kids can't eat then she's a very upset person. >> i try not to cry in front of them but when they'll come to me and the refrigerator or the pantry's empty and they'll say well what are we going to eat? >> almost one in six americans are living what is known with food insecurity. a term which captures both hunger and the fear of hunger. it means nutritious sufficient affordable food is not consistently available because the family doesn't have the funds even with federal assistance to be able to buy it.

zachary tabby and gabby don't know about the food stamps they live on since june and their parents don't want them to. >> they live on a food card. >> what's a food card? >> it's like a credit card that once a month we can get food on but unfortunately it is food stamps. i had no money, we didn't have any stores anywhere, i couldn't watches my kids go hungry so i had to suck up my pride and go and apply for food stamps. >> it was -- wow for me to swallow my pride you have no idea what that was like. i work. i -- i am not lazy. i work every day. and to apply for food stamps was -- was a new low for me. >> even the free things that you know, it involves parking you have to pay for parking. it's free to come but you got to

pay for parking or it's free to get in but you can't bring food in, you have to buy our food. if i spend that $5 to take my kids out for a day of fun where am i going to get toilet paper and stuff from? >> not too long ago the brians were a middle class family who had money to redecorate and take the kids to functions. but that changed. >> i was on welfare, my mother was the single parent of seven kids. i always said there's no way in this world that i'm going to be on welfare. in 2007 i could have sat here and told you i'll probably retire at 55. that's how well we were doing. >> that's six years ago. >> that's only six years ago. and in six years i'm on food stamps. >> aaron is a construction

project manager. in the last year and a half he's had just one four-month job. when he had full time work he made $60,000 a year. he's run out of unemployment insurance and these days looks for the odd $100 a day side job wherever he can. still it's nowhere near enough to pay even the mortgage or the host of other monthly bills. >> i can show you, i must send out 30 to 40 resumes a month, a month, to beat the odds. >> and some of the jobs he apply for says full time here in maryland but when they call him back it ends up being part time or it ends up they had one they wanted him to go to texas. i'm not picking my family up and leaving and the chance of him being there for that opportunity and then they let him go and there we've uprooted our family.

>> was it more -- >> we used to buy ham bologna cheese, and all that stuff. >> what is your favorite? shrimp salad. >> and second best is the chicken pot pie. >> chicken pot pie, hmm? you hate chicken pot pie? (laughing). >> at least zack, tabby and gabby have been exposed to healthy food. many children from food insecure families haven't. food choices are hard. healthy foods like fruits and vegetables have grown more costly. >> our student population is 80% eligible for the federal free and reduced lunch program. >> matt horn beck is the principal of the academy where the brian children attend school. you would never know it but this is classified as an inner city school with high percentage of pupils from families that are struggling to get by.

the school offers a free breakfast. >> we have hot food, pancakes sausages eggs breakfast pizza orange juice milk lots of good stuff. >> but mr. hornbrook has more than free lunches and -- free breakfast and subsidized lunches. a class called food for life. >> it's pretty good. that means i don't really care for it. not my favorite. >> let's vote on the guacamole. 1-2-3 vote. i don't force kids to eat vegetables. if they don't want to, that's okay. it's the no yuk rule, no yuck, no yum. >> washing and distributing fresh fruit and vegetables in a federally funneled program until

the program was cut. paid her 250 to $500 a month, and she knew the kids not just her own were getting a healthy snack. now, that comes out of the family food stamp allowance. which doesn't add up to much. >> 750 for five people,. >> that's just over $8 a meal for a family of five. the strain of trying to make the family equation come out right is palpable. >> i mean i cry so many nights, it's like, really, hard, i can't sleep. i've had weeks without sleep because i'm just crying because i don't know how tomorrow's going to be. you know you can have your good days and your bad days, one day i'm like yay, there's hope. and then the phone call and all that hope you've just had is watched away. it's hard -- washed away. it's hard.

>> how do you guys get out of the situation? >> how will we get out? >> yeah, how do you get out of this? >> i pray to god that he gets a job, i get a part time job, some miracle comes that we can get help, we can get caught up on our mortgage. we can get food stamps. >> the brians do not have a fall back plan. when the phone rings they hope it's a job offer and not another bill collector. and aaron has a side job stringing christmas lights in the next few days. there will be food in the refrigerator at least for the next few days. have is we spoke to julie and brian this afternoon. they will have a thanksgiving dinner because a teacher from the children's school has given them a turkey. that's one piece of good news. julie has gotten some of the bill collectors back off and the money will make sure the

electricity and the gas are not disconnected. so very, very tight. >> heartbreaking to look at. is there any way to gauge how many other families are out there like this? >> 45 million americans on snap, that's the food assistance program. of those 45 million, about 85% of them are families like the brians. it's a picture perhaps of food insecurity, that is not what we would expect to see. and it's about not just hunger because it's not really hunger. it's about the fear of hunger and it's about falling off that cliff. this is a family that was a middle class family, just a very, very short time ago. >> and they can make all the difference, just one incident, one change in their status. now, they said just over $8 a meal. what do you feed a family on that? >> a lot of bologna, a lot of bread. this is a family that you know they know about nutrition and

they are very cognizant that their kids eat well. you know ramen noodles. they are ten for $1. but the kids are using more substance. >> they know they need it. >> they know they need it, and there is subsidized lunches in the school to make sure that kids and they hope their parents can make healthy choices and economical choices. >> really around this community there's got to be a lot of insecurity. >> 80% of the kids in that school come from families that are in positions similar to the brians. this is nonan anomaly. 80% of the kids in that school. -- not an anomaly. you would never know it was an inner city school. >> thank you sheila.

sheila macvicar for us. there's more foot for thought for us when we come back. making sense of food waste. so many people are in need. we'll try to explain it. stay with us. >> it seems like they can't >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington agree to anything in washington no matter what. no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your the history of suicide in your family. family. >> there's no status quo, just >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete? in a professional athlete?

>> and welcome back. here is some more food for thought. 40% of the food produced in this country is just thrown away. at the same time, nearly seven in ten americans are overweight and millions of people just don't have enough to eat. how to explain this disconnect between food, hupger, wealth and poverty? pick up our conversation about hunger in america with joel berg, director of the new york city coalition against hunger and author of how much can you eat, hunger in america. and joel patel, stuffed and starved. >> i'm responsible every time i turn down a piece of bruised fruit. >> the economy in america has created a culture of abundance, you want the perfect fruit. and a lot of food goes to waste,

in order to be america's pantry, the food system does generate a lot of waste. if you are interested in why it is people go hungry, it's not that wasted food is not ending up in the plates of poor people, but that people are poor. we actually have enough food to feed the world plenty. the reason people go hungry today is not because of a shortage of food or even if that food is slightly brown but because people are poor and poverty is the reason people are unable to access that food. >> isn't it true that you can go from being hungry to being obese which seems sort of like some kind of disconnect and how can that possibly be? >> well, i agree with raj, that the central issue is poverty.

and ironically, hunger and obesity are flip sides of the same mal malnutrition coin. healther food often takes longer to prepare and people in poverty are traf traflg in public transportation and don't have a lot of money for that, some kind of proof that there's no hupger in america but that's preposterous. the neighborhoods that have the highest level of poverty and hunger also happen to have ironically the highest levels of obesity. >> why does it happen that you know, if you realize that you could do better for your family, you could create more nutrition- nutritious meals, by eating more fruits and vegetables, why doesn't that happen?

>> 20% of all food stamps are spent on fruits and vegetables, often more expensive than junk food, they're often harder to get in low income neighborhoods. they go bad more quickly so working people who are low income often can't control their schedules for the week, and if their boss makes them work overtime their fruit rots at home. and so i'm often careful that we don't blame the victim. >> when we think about changing the diet of the american, that goes back to the farm itself. >> it does, so many things have conspired to get us into very bad eating habits. again eating habits make it seem that the person that pops footd food into their mouths. we do need to take responsibility for the choices we have.

but the choices aren't ones of our own making. obviously when we think about the food that's grown on farms in the u.s. today, those foods are not fresh fruits and vegetables. the majority of the farm output of the united states is a commodity crop that is destined either to be fed to animals, cheap meat or to be turned into fuel or to high fructose corn syrup. what we need to think about is not the diet end of things but the individual person, the scope of responsibility is choices that we have of our own making but too often the food system is carved out by large and powerful corporations to subsidize their products rather than the product that is good for the majority of americans. >> joel can you talk about the subsidies of the farm system and how that plays a role? >> we spend billions of dollars a year of u.s. tax dollars to go to corporate agribusiness.

the cato 92 it and the heritage foundation they opposed these subsidies as well. most moderates oppose them as a waste of tax dollars. then why are they still there? why haven't they been seriously are reformed to help small vegetable produces and help moderate americans? because agribusiness has given more than $600 billion to government to keep this horrible system in place. >> as we change our diet or don't change our diet we dominate the world's food culture. >> we do and that has happened through things like the world trade organization like the u.s. and the european union pushed a particular vision of what the system should look like. while the u.s. is allowed to

subsidize its large corporate farm produces and i disagree with joel here i think farming does deserve support, particularly if you're interested in supporting farmers in the global south in developing countries or worldwide you need to support farmers because most poor people in the global south are working in rural areas. but the international trade policy has prevented poor countries from subsidizing their poor farmers, we subsidize to the tune of billions of dollars a year to the wrong people. >> let's be clear i support small farmers and particularly small farmers in the developing world. that's not where our subsidies are going to. >> quite absolutely. >> we appreciate you joel and raj for being here. >> thanks for having us. >> how do we get nutritious food to those who need it? one idea is the food rescue

mission, the campus that rest accuse food and delivers it to food pantries around the area. >> we are going to alexandria called del rey. they make food donation for us. it's a real crime in our affluent society that we have as many people as we do who go hungry and at the same time we are throwing out all of this healthy food. >> 40% of the food in the united states is wasted. 52% of fresh produce in our country is wasted. the more produce is wasted than is even eaten. >> you keep it, you sell it. okay? take what's left. we want them to sell as much as they can because this is a business for them and they're making a living. we only want to take what they can't sell or aren't going to be able to sell.

>> campus kitchen at washington, d.c. is part of our national network of 34 campus kitchens across the country. we have as a whole network recovered 3 million pounds of food and take food that is wasted and transform it to nutritious meals. in order to get a meal on the table a lot has to happen. getting all that support means the whole community is involved and engaged in this mission. >> i was minding my own business here one day awhen this guy shows up and says hey, explained what he did and where the food goes that he is able to collect up and it sounded like a good thing to do to get involved in. we have a whole bunch of different greens, collard and broccoli. i can give you some of that,. >> whatever you can spare is great. >> whenever you're recovering food it's important to be reliable and dependable.

because when the farmers set aside food for you if you're not there then they have a problem. >> you have a great thanksgiving. >> you too. >> we'll see you next time, thanks a lot. >> donating some apples because people who pay full price for their food, they want their food really pretty. it's little black spots around the apple so they tend to not get put into a shopper's bag. >> great donation today. probably a little bit more than we would normally have. >> our volunteers today are primarily students from central methodist university in missouri. >> from where i come from, food is like you have to finish the food that's on your plate and everything. so i used to work in the cafe. when i worked in the-room i saw food thrown away it was really, really shocking for me.

>> a couple of boxes of really nice broccoli out there. >> we are addressing food insecurity. these folks would not know where their next meal is coming from. >> it is really fun. i have a culinary grouped and then also seeing all this food used that would otherwise have been wasted. the point is food recovery with food wasted. there are so many hungry people in the city. >> thank you for the food here. >> i don't know exactly when i'll be eating. you know, like hit and miss. i might go out, get something to eat because i am working. i have to take it day by day. i'm just blessed to be eating this now i know that. i want to be honest. >> honest indeed. coming up next here on the road on the rail on the delays. we'll get the latest on the messy holiday weather and then we'll listen to this: ♪

>> iran's president turns on the charm online. is he taking a page from the obama play book? we'll find out. find out what happened find out what happened and what to expect. and what to expect. >> start every morning, every >> start every morning, every day, 5am to 9 eastern day, 5am to 9 eastern with al jazeera america. with al jazeera america. power power of the people until we restore

of the people until we restore our freedoms and rights. our freedo

>> and now snap hot of stories making headlines on america tonight. there's another delay to the country's new health care law this time to online health insurance for small businesses. employers will not be able to buy coverage for their workers until next year. the health site, healthcare.gov has been plagued with a number of glitches since its launch. sylvio bairl birls coin berlusce arrest. flight staff.com has said

nearly 600 flights have been cancelled. if you are still trying to get there, bigger problem is delays more than 5,000 flights nationwide. winter storm causing many problems on the air and on the ground for many holiday travelers. kevin corriveau, what's going to happen for the rest of the night. >> well, joie, believe it or not, we've seen some great improvement in the last few hours. he be compassing much of the eastern seaboard, as the storm moves to the north it moves faster as well. what we are seeing is new york has cleared out and boston is just about to clear out as well. so some good news there. in terms of delays, well, things have really improved. the only problems that we're having here across the region is la quawla guardia and jfk. the bridge visibility has

cleared up. the traffic across the area is moving quite nicely across the area, good news there. there's still about 7700 flights that are in the air. so lot of people are still trying to get home. now the problem tonight is going to be still, we have some snow to deal with. some people that are traveling on the roads, especially northern new york, pennsylvania that left work later this evening, they're going to be dealing with the snow across the region, so unfortunately that is still a major problem. >> what about tomorrow then kevin? >> joie, when this storm is gone, what people will be dealing with believe it or not are those extremely cold temperatures that are going to be below freezing all the way to texas. houston, 23°, atlanta 23, believe it or not new york is going to be warmer than places in the south. things will be warming up nicely, new york 34°. partly cloudy conditions for motte of the country.

unfortunately, very windy conditions up here towards the northeast. that's going to be the morning and unfortunately that will be a problem for the macy's day parade. >> meteorology kevin corriveau, thanks joining us from new york. on the relations front now, surprising moves by both first afghanistan, where the united states is trying to wind down its mission. and where once warm relationship now seems to be throwing up a frosty good-bye. afghan president hamid karzai has refused to sign a bilateral security agreement. instead karzai has offered some new conditions. a delay will force the united states no choice but to draw down its forces unilaterally. >> if the agreement isn't signed, what i said to the

president, we would have no choice, we would be compelled by necessity, to begin to plan for the prospect that we will not be able to keep our troops here, they will not be invited because the bsa will not be signed. and the nature of our partnership and the investments we have made will be more difficult to sustain. >> joining us in studio is sara chase from the carnegie institute. >> his brother was a presidential candidate just after the fall of the taliban. i met karzai on several occasions. >> he became somewhat of a surprise to the united states. >> to be quite honest, i didn't think the united states was focusing much on afghanistan much at all until about 2009. so there was a kind of

maintenance type of situation, where president bush would talk to carr disien one on one-caw karzai one on one in a video conference. but national security at that time was really focused on iraq. >> what do you see in what he's doing now it seems in some sense rebellious, difficult and trance gent. >> there was a shift in u.s. attitude towards president karzai when the obama administration came to power, when there was some focus on afghanistan for its own sake and a realization that the way the afghan president treated its on public how this mission went forward. an increasing realization that president karzai was at the head of a government that was if

nothing else abusism corrupt. and there was an effort to try to curb this is in some way or make it clear to president karzai that this really wasn't working. and he reacted basically by throwing temper tantrums. and essentially when he would throw a temper tab trum the u.s. would fold -- tantrum the u.s. would fold. yes, he is being rebellious if you want to use that word, although no one is his superior in the u.s. government. but in a funny way, u.s. policy has actually conditioned him to act this way. >> to be this way. >> exactly. >> is there going to be an agreement? is he going to captain lat capi? what happens after 2013? >> i think iraq is an interesting example where a deal was in negotiation, exact number of u.s. troops was going to stay was known. and at the last moment that

agreement was never finalized. and so, it was quite interesting, to see how quickly the united states drew down to zero, meaning, from a -- moving from a situation where it was going to be i think 10,000 troops, when that didn't happen, you know, u.s. troops and materiale moved out quickly quickly. >> and moved to strife after that. which is the point to karzai. >> i think karzai doubtless presumes that once again he is being consolidated but the words are empty and the reward will come as it has in the past. >> sarah chase from the carnegie endowment. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. we turn to another international partner that hasn't proved to be this open to

international sanctions and that's iran. hassan rouhani is underscoring his ambition to the u.s. with a new tone and an unexpected bit of online marketing. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the video features iranian artists recitin reciting parts n rouhani's inaugural speech. it bears some relationship to this. >> blazing trail yes we can yes we can ♪ >> yes they did. the star studded video went viral during the 2008 u.s.

presidential campaign. both these men came into office promising change. how has hassan rouhani lived up to those promises? in his first 100 days of office? hamiir roujani, how do you see it? >> i think it's for domestic consumption for his base. similar to president obama's base in 2008. >> it's awfully much like it isn't it? >> yes. eight years of ahmadinejad was a very dark need for iran and it was a yearning to move past that bombast. and that video speaks to that. >> what is he telling his base? >> he says i'm moving the needle. he is giving them hope. >> is he saying i'm more like obama? >> i don't think he would say that. obviously the similarities are

stunning, but what he is trying to tell them i think is you should have hope, optimism, a new day is coming. >> something the obama administration was also offering. >> precisely. >> is that popular, sit going to resonate? >> very much so. president obama is very popular in iran, when he came into office he said he was going to extend the hand change. friendship, i think that given where president rouhani is with his base, having outreached to the united states is the right way to move forward. >> he certainly came into office, rouhani, with a lot of pressure on him for economic change. is that really going to start to come to fruition here, we're talking about the nuclear agreement and the potential for at least some of the sanction pressure to be lifted? >> well, you can't get economic

change without the sanctions being removed. he's coming with really three things. number 1, iran is undergoing hyperinflation. cost of living has gone up. the cost of the currency has devalued tremendously. all this happened was because of the sanctions. the only thing you can get these turned around is to negotiate on the nuclear issue, thereby having some sanctions removed and give ventilation theory in the economy. >> we're talking about a small portion of the sanction money being released, obviously there's still a lot -- we're only talking about a six month deal. >> you've got to start somewhere. there's been a laundry list of issues for 34 years. but the most pressing is the nuclear issue. if he can solve that, he can move on to other issues. the iranian status in the world will start to improve and if certain sanctions are lifted, they can have access to barning

and around the world, maybe oil revenue. >> you would see optimism that some progress has been made, some movement on the needle? >> some progress. the twitter and facebook sphere of iran went ballistic. viral. when the iranian negotiators came back from geneva da, they were greeted warmly, signs in farsi, saying i love you. very hopeful type. >> this is optics again, underscoring that point. at the end of the day, it is not hassan rouhani call alone. he does very supreme leader. >> absolutely, supreme leader's word is time. however, the supreme leader seems to be reacceptive to the direction rouhani is going. ahmadinejad cut the similar deal

years ago, when hes negotiator the constituency base undercut him. the supreme leader. so rouhani is able to get the buy-in of the different constituencies in iran to make this deal possible. >> so he's showing a lot of strength, even with optics and video, he is showing a lot of strength showing that the leader is behind him? >> absolutely. i think that video is just to show his base that things are changing, a new day is coming. the leader has said a number of times that he is for diplomacy. he came out at a speech with the revolutionary guard, saying he's for heroic flexibility. he's come out again saying to the very hard line critics of rouhani that it's not time to negotiate, very difficult time ahead, he has given them the agree light right now to proceed with diplomacy and it's proven

effective. >> there are still suspicions out there. we appreciate you being with us to talk about all this, here in the studio. after the break, a thanksgiving voyage and one town's effort to put the mayflower of all things back on the map. al jazeera america presents... al jazeera america presents... gripping films from the world's gripping films from the world's top documentary directors. top documentary directors. >> this is just the beginning of >> this is just the beginning of something much bigger. something much bigger. >> next sunday: do the math. >> next sunday: do the math. >> these companies are a rogue >> these companies are a rogue force. force. >> one environmentalist says >> one environmentalist says fossil fuels equal disaster. fossil fuels equal disaster. will his movement add up to will his movement add up to change? change? >> we will fight it together. >> we will fight it together. >> al jazeera america presents: >> al jazeera america presents: do the math. do the math.

>> thanks o giving of course we think about the origination of this nation. the mayflower that brought the pilgrims to america will be remembered as the greatest

adventures in history. now centuries ago counting on the history to help out its economy. as carl bostick tells us, the 400th anniversary of that voyage. >> shipping is the story, and with the struggling economy, herrage is turning oits maritime history to help. >> we're building a boat. >> and not just any boat. >> it's the mayflower. >> the story of the mayflower begins here in the late 1600. build in this area. >> there were not much less than 26 mayflowers. mayflower was in the port books, the fact that it stated that it

was of harrage, the home port was harrage. >> christopher jones the captain of the mayflower actually lived in a house that we're standing in front of now. >> when i see all these trees here, what did we expect to happen? >> there's about 150 trees in here weighing about 175 tons. it's about a third to a half of what we need to build a ship. >> the mayflower projects a job creation program will also build an exact replica of the ship in time of the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims 1620 voyage to america. >> the may floweflower actually started its voyage -- >> as the captain there was simply more trading here for the mayflower as a cash go ship. in timber, wool, textiles even

wine. and they accepted a new cargo, at the time they were called planters and adventurers who wanted to go to the new world. >> one of the christopher jones favorite pubz. >> wills from who? >> people from the mayflower. give and bequeath to my daughter mary sherwood, the least of my hoop build rings. >> people in cramped living conditions. people lived and died there, there was a baby born on that voyage. >> when christopher jones returned, he may have been disappointed open that voyage. they were supposed to land near virginia. he came back with no cargo at all, many of his crew had died along the way and his own ship mayflower was nearly in ruins,

no value at all and ready to be scrapped. >> this was given to the church in the year 1620. the same year that the mayflower sailed. i often wonder whether christopher jones himself would have received communion from this chalice as he worshipped from st. mary's. >> jones died the year after the voyage. he was buried at st. mary's. >> we don't know where christopher jones is buried because they didn't know then the significance of that voyage he made with the pilgrims. >> jones died thinking it was a significant misadventure not knowing it would be turned out to be a significant adventure.

>> a mouthful of tradition goes missing, we're hot on the trail of the new york knish crisis.

>> and finally from us tonight on this thanksgiving eve, this is another sort of food tradition, stuffed in its own way. do you know the knish? the jewish knish. a name that can't begin to describe its full bodied sphwans to the community. the knish has all scorlts of culinary passion, where america tonight's christophe putzel has this food for thought. >> on september 24th when the

world's largest knish producer, lost its key machine. >> and it has created a shortage of this square fried version of the potato del delicacy. >> the local delicacy. >> the knish problem is much greater than that. >> once ordered by the dozen and sold in street carts, delis around the country. is now -- >> do you have any knish? do you have any knish? no knish? only hot dogs. >> to be honor is, i've never even eaten a knish. so i've enlisted lawsh ah sil ver to help me understand what people are missing. >> when you say knish, people think of period of time, an

saysors, people who came to the lower east side to make a living. the knish has all that wrapped up into it. plus it's really good. >> what does it mean to you? >> i'm a native new yorker and born to native new yorkers and grandparents from eastern europe. growing up i felt the knish encapsulated our history. definitely something linked to a jewish past. >> a knish consists of a filling, there was a factory fire that caused the national shortage. >> when the fire occurred on september 24th, the machinery that was responsible for making the square knish was destroyed. when the firefighters came from they absolutely did what they had to do but the water damage that the machine sustained rendered the machine inoperable and since that time we have not been able to manufacture the

square knishes. >> this is stacy ziskin. her family have cornered the market on square knishes for ever. >> when the outcry for when they're going to be back. >> customers are going to have to go for round knishes. >> i grew up as a round person. >> and you converted? >> well, i'd say i'm equally interested in both. >> you didn't grow up eating the square ones? >> the great square versus round knish debate. deep fried, usually processed. in the other, the hand baked, rival, the round knish. >> as a kid, they came in little wax bags and you would buy them

on the beach and that's all they were good for. >> i visited lower east side, a knish shop selling round knishes for more than a century. a square fried knish is simply not a true knish. >> a knish is a yiddish word, german, means dumpling. a knish must be round and baked. if you haven't had this knish you really haven't had a knish. >> all right, about to bake up our knishes. >> it wasn't long before ellen put me to work, the thousand knishes that she puts out every day. >> what you see here will be nice shape soon. >> how did i do? >> okay, last little piece. dell castedelicacy.

-- delicacy. >> when are you going to give people back their knishes? >> we think we'll be able to do that in like the last week in november and hopefully worst case scenario the first week in december. which again does coincide with hanukkah this year. that's our hope. >> i never was able to taste a square knish but i did devour many round ones and with it a piece of new york and jewish history. >> so exciting to be rear here -- here right on forsythe street. i think it's linked to new york identity, people of all backgrounds, all clamoring for knishes and something that opens up worlds when you eat it. >> that's christophe putzel reporting and eating and enjoying it. we understand. he's certainly going to be out enjoying that over the weekend

this holiday weekend in new york city, looking forward to all the tasty treats for that and for hanukkah as well. that's it for us on america tonight. please remember ne -- if you wod like to comment on anything on our program, tell us what you'd like to see in our nightly current affairs program. if you would like to give us knish recipes, you can join us on twitter or facebook. we'll have more of america tonight, tomorrow.

>> hello everybody and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm david shuster in new york. the storm system that's in the east could ground some of the stars of macy's thanksgiving parade. high wind could cause these giant balloons to crash. macy's is coordinating with the police department and will decide whether to fly the balloons in the morning. according to the huffington post, the nsa has used online searches for pornography, in order to highlight those with radical views. a bankruptcy judge has cleared a merger between american airlines and u.s.