The need is greater than ever

2009 Walk for Hunger on Sunday, May 3

In the midst of the steepest economic downturn in fifty years, Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger on Sunday, May 3, takes on urgent meaning for those struggling to put food on the table. “We have never needed it more,” says Ellen Parker, the executive director of Project Bread, the state’s leading antihunger organization. “This year, we’re asking everyone to do something to help. Every dollar, every mile, and every volunteer hour counts.”

Project Bread estimates more than 522,000 people in the state are food insecure. With foreclosures and layoffs, many more people find themselves hungry and hurting for the first time. Calls to Project Bread’s FoodSource Hotline, the only comprehensive hunger resource in Massachusetts, have surged from month to month. Inquiries to the Hotline were up 34 percent in January from the same period of time a year ago, 67 percent in February, and 88 percent in March. The FoodSource Hotline — 1-800-645-8333 — is a toll-free information and referral service that immediately connects a hungry person to soup kitchens, food stamps, and groceries at food pantries. “We are getting more of every kind of caller, including those from college-educated professionals who say ‘they never thought they’d have to ask for help,’” said Diane Dickerson, Director of Emergency Food Resources.

Despite these historically hard times, Walk registrations are edging up from last year and Project Bread is encouraged that Walkers, donors, and dollars are responding to the increased demand. In 2008, 40,000 Walkers and 2,000 Volunteers participated in the 20-mile trek that wends its way through Boston, Brookline, Newton, Watertown, and Cambridge. Last year, they raised an unprecedented $4 million to fund 400 emergency programs in 128 Massachusetts communities — money that is being used to buy food to feed hungry people right now.

As the nation’s oldest continual pledge walk, The Walk for Hunger has raised over $70 million since 1969 with an estimated 952,000 participants walking 19 million miles to nourish those in need. The Walk involves many families, school, religious, and work organizations that make the fundraiser a celebrated rite of spring. This year, the tradition is more crucial than any since the Walk began as “Feet for Wheat” in Quincy, Mass., founded by activist Patrick Hughes of Boston’s Paulist Center.

To register for the Walk for Hunger, visit projectbread.org or call 617-723-5000.

About Project Bread
As the state’s leading antihunger organization, Project Bread is dedicated to alleviating, preventing, and ultimately ending hunger in Massachusetts. Through The Walk for Hunger, Project Bread provides millions of dollars each year in privately donated funds to emergency food programs statewide. Project Bread also advocates systematic solutions that prevent hunger in children and provide food to families in natural, everyday settings. With the support of the Governor and state Legislature, the organization has invested millions in grants to community organizations that feed children where they live, learn, and play. For more information, visit www.projectbread.org.