Project Bread's Walk for Hunger is the oldest continual pledge walk in the United States and the largest annual one-day fundraiser to alleviate local hunger in Massachusetts.
Project Bread's Walk for Hunger is the oldest continual pledge walk in the United States and the largest annual one-day fundraiser to alleviate local hunger in Massachusetts.
Project Bread is an antihunger organization creating and promoting programs to help end hunger in Massachusetts. With the Chefs in Schools Initiative, the organization is changing school food. The Initiative is a joint effort with Project Bread and the City of Boston to change what kids eat in the school cafeteria. First piloted in the Boston Public Schools, the "Chef in Resident," Chef Kirk Conrad, is now working in Lawrence and Salem School districts. [1] [2]
The Child Nutrition Outreach Program at Project Bread has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote participation the Summer Food Service Program and the National School Breakfast Program, both federally funded programs. Making sure kids don’t go hungry when they're not in school, sites around the state allow low-income children the opportunity for free or reduced priced meals. [3] [4]
According to Project Bread's 2010 status report, 660,000 people in Massachusetts are hungry. [5] Project Bread is trying to eliminate the number of food insecure people with the FoodSource Hotline, where people can find out how to get the help they need. [6] Project Bread has also created an easy website to help residents apply for food stamps. [7] [8]
Boston Red Sox player Jacoby Ellsbury came out with "ZinfandEllsbury" Wine in 2010, with proceeds benefitting Project Bread. [9]
The first Walk was held in 1969 by a group of activists from the Paulist Center, led by Patrick Hughes. An estimated 2,000 people walked and raised $26,000 to help fund two hunger projects. At the 2009 Walk for Hunger, 44,000 people came to the Boston Common to raise millions for the hungry. The 20-mile pledge Walk attracted over 1,000 religious organizations, as well as 1,200 corporate teams, 1,200 schools, 2,000 volunteers, and 700 friends and family groups who all came together to help feed hungry people in Massachusetts. [10]
The 20-mile Walk occurs annually on the first Sunday in May and weaves through Boston, Brookline, Newton, Watertown and Cambridge, and includes entertainment and free snacks along the way. The 45th annual Walk for Hunger took place on Sunday, May 5, 2013. [11] In 2016 the course was shortened from 20 miles to 10 due to cost and security concerns. [12]
In 2020 and 2021, the Walk was converted to a "virtual" event because of the COVID-19 pandemic. [13]
Unlike regular Walkers, The Heart & Sole Walkers must raise at least $500 to become part of the Heart & Sole Circle. The group raises more than $1 million to help hungry people annually. These special Walkers are between the ages of 9 and 90. Their help is what makes it possible to raise one third of the money given to help the hungry. Special T-shirts are given to these individuals.
Volunteers at the Walk help assist Walkers. At each checkpoint, volunteers help check off mile sheets, hand out cold water, assist Walkers by helping them cross the streets safely and motivating the participants. [14]
Roxbury is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) is a social benefit organization located in Plano, Texas. The organization distributes donated, purchased and prepared foods through a network of nearly 1,000 feeding programs and 400 Partner Agencies in 13 North Texas counties. The NTFB supports the nutritional needs of children, seniors, and families through education, advocacy and strategic partnerships.
Food for Life Global is a non-profit vegan food relief organization founded in 1995 to serve as the headquarters for Food for Life projects. Food for Life Global has its roots in ISKCON dating back to 1974. It is a completely independent non-profit organization that supports the work of Food for Life projects both inside and outside of ISKCON. Its network of 291 affiliates span the globe, with projects occupying over 65 countries. Volunteers provide over 1 million free meals daily. Food For Life engages in various sorts of hunger relief, including outreach to the homeless, provision for disadvantaged children throughout India, and provision for victims of natural disasters around the world.
Freedom from Hunger is an international development organization working in nineteen countries. Freedom from Hunger focuses on providing small loans and business education to poor women. It is a nonprofit organization classified by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charity. It was evaluated in 2011 by GiveWell, who found their programs had little to no lasting impact.
Tackle Hunger: Home of the Souper Bowl of Caring is uniting all communities to Tackle Hunger using their programs such as the Tackle Hunger Map, the Tackle Hunger Challenge, and the annual Souper Bowl of Caring event. Tackle Hunger uses a digital platform to support food charities and encourage communities to raise funds and food donations for local food charities across the nation.
The Daily Bread Food Bank (DBFB) is a non-denominational Canadian charity organization with a stated goal of ending hunger in Toronto by collaborating with all to eliminate food insecurity and advocate for solutions to end poverty. Founded in 1983, the organization is based in Toronto, Ontario, and is one of the largest food bank organizations in Canada.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) is a nonprofit organization that fights hunger throughout Cook County, Illinois. The GCFD distributes donated and purchased food through a network of 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and community programs, serving more than 800,000 adults and children every year. In fiscal year 2016, the GCFD distributed more than 70 million pounds of nonperishable food, produce, dairy products, and meat - the equivalent of more than 160,000 meals every day. Of the $96,883,955 spent in 2016, over 90% went to direct food distribution programs.
Larry Kessler is the Founding Director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, an agency that has served over half of all people diagnosed with AIDS in Massachusetts, educated generations about the disease, and secured progressive city, state, and federal AIDS policy.
International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES) is a 501c3 non-profit organization based in Noblesville, Indiana, United States that seeks to meet the physical and spiritual needs of suffering people around the world in the name of Jesus Christ. The organization is primarily funded by Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. Much of its relief effort is done through local churches and missionaries already in place in the countries needing assistance.
Hunger Task Force, Inc. is a non-profit, anti-hunger public policy organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hunger Task Force works to end hunger in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin by providing direct food delivery services, and works to end future hunger by advocating for fair and responsible administration of federal nutrition assistance programs.
Philabundance is a non-profit food bank that serves the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the largest such organization in the region.
Second Harvest North Florida (SHNF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Jacksonville, Florida, that performs food rescue and redistribution to partner agencies in one quarter of Florida's 67 counties. The charitable organization has been active for over 30 years.
Yad Ezra V'Shulamit is a Jewish charity organization located in Israel. Founded in 1998, its mission is to feed poor and hungry families in Israel, with a special focus on providing daily hot meals for children. It distributes thousands of food baskets each week to poor Israeli families, provides daily hot lunches for children, runs annual clothing and school supply drives, and operates a job desk for unemployed adults. The motto of the organization is "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty, One Child at a Time".
Food Lifeline is a non-profit organization that supplies food to different food banks across Western Washington. Food Lifeline is responsible for repackaging and delivering food to 275 different organizations that distribute meals to the Western Washington population. Out of all the food distributed to these different organizations, 30% of the meals end up coming directly from Food Lifeline alone. Food Lifeline is part of a nationwide non-profit called Feeding America and assists in collecting food that would otherwise go to waste.
Adrian Hădean is a Romanian „chef”. He grew up in Baia Mare, a city in northern Romania, where he also made his debut as a professional cook. Today, he is a well-renowned Romanian chef, gastronomer, food blogger, writer, and public personality. He is particularly famous for his culinary blog, one of the most visited in Romania, as well as for his participation as a member of the jury in the cooking show MasterChef, which debuted in 2014 on one of the Romanian TV stations.
Buddhist Global Relief is an organization of socially engaged Buddhists with a mission to "combat chronic hunger and malnutrition". It was founded by Bhikkhu Bodhi in 2008.
Felix Project is a United Kingdom charitable organization that saves surplus food from suppliers and redistributes it to charities. It has the dual aim to help reduce food surplus. The Waste & Resources Action Programme estimate that 10 million tonnes of food was thrown away in the UK in 2016 and help relieve food poverty (Sustain estimate 18% or one in five London pupils are at risk of hunger every day.
La Soupe is a Cincinnati, Ohio, nonprofit organization that uses discarded food to produce meals and delivers them to other nonprofit agencies for distribution to people experiencing food insecurity.
The Capuchin Soup Kitchen (CSK) is a religiously affiliated soup kitchen and non-profit organization located in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded by the Capuchin friars to provide food for the poor during the Great Depression and is sponsored by the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph. While it was initially established as a soup kitchen, CSK now includes a food and clothing bank, a drug rehabilitation program, and an after school and summer youth program. Through its various ministries CSK serves approximately 560,000 individuals each year.
St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization located in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1967 by John van Hengel, St. Mary's was the first modern organization to operate using the food bank model, which spread throughout U.S. and the rest of the world. Today, St. Mary's is recognized as the world's first food bank.