Walk for Hunger Celebrates 40 Years Sunday
This Sunday is the first Sunday in May, which means it’s time for a 40-year-old Massachusetts tradition — Project Bread’s annual Walk for Hunger.
Started in 1969 by a compassionate Catholic priest named Patrick Hughes, the Walk for Hunger is a 20-mile pledge walk, the oldest one in the country, through Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Newton, and Watertown. The purpose of the trek is to raise money to fight hunger among Bay State residents.
Although it’s hard to believe that starvation could possibly be a constant worry for inhabitants of the United States — that only happens in faraway, third-world countries, right? — a recent Boston Globe article by columnist James Carroll sets the record straight.
Government studies suggested in 2007 that nearly half a million residents of [Massachusetts] do not have enough to eat. In a place where the income gap between the richest and the poorest is vast, the high cost of living puts the supply of basic nutritional needs beyond the reach of many. If a silent tsunami has struck the globe, a quiet Katrina rolls in on Massachusetts families every day. In many households, three meals have become two.
The first Walk for Hunger in 1969 had about 2,000 participants who raised $26,000 together for local food programs. Last year, 43,000 participants in the 39th annual Walk for Hunger raised a record-breaking $3.4 million as a result of donations from every state in this country and twenty additional countries around the world.
Clearly, those who are concerned about the shocking disparity between the quality of life for people who have enough to eat and those who don’t can do something about it. Two options are to donate to Project Bread’s worthy cause or join other Walk for Hunger participants on Boston Common this Sunday, May 4, between 7am and 9am to go on one of the best walks of your life. [More Information]
Take a look at the official Walk for Hunger video below, as well, to see what an extremely uplifting and incredibly diverse experience the annual walk is.
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