For a country that is known for wasting tons of food a day,
America ironically has millions of people dealing with hunger.
According to the Feeding America website, in 2015, there are
42.2 million Americans live in food insecure households, which include 13.1
million children. 5 percent of households experienced very low food security. As
of 2014, 5.4 million seniors over age 60 were food insecure. Surprisingly every
county in America deals with level of food insecurity.
As a member of the Feeding America organization, Harry
Chapin Food Bank is an organization that works to fight hunger in southwest
Florida. The counties that they focus on is Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry,
and Lee. The food bank was opened in 1983, originally known as Lee County Food
Cooperative. In 1994, their name was changed and named after the late Harry
Chapin, a cinematographer who was heavily committed to fighting hunger throughout
his career.
“Our motivation was that some of our members of the
community saw that there was a real need for food assistance in our communities,
and the way to help with that was to form the food co-op so they can accept the
government commodities and then get them out to the neighborhoods where they
were needed,” said Joyce Jacobs, Associate Director & Disaster Coordinator.
The food bank started in an old part of a Farmer’s Market. They
soon was able to get involved with other the local community foundations and
partners in order to move into a more adequate facility.
Throughout the years they have partnered with 150 agencies
to provide for the people in need of southwest Florida. Every week the food
bank supply food for over 28,000 people and every year they supply millions of
pounds of food and million meals. In order to fundraise and make this possible,
they host numerous events annually to bring awareness to the community, like
taste events and tennis tournaments. One event in particular that they hold
every year, for nine years now, has grown and is continuing to grow
tremendously since it was first introduced.
This event is the called the Wink News Feeds Families Hunger
Walk. At this event, people in the community of all ages can be a part of the
day’s festivities. It is a non-competitive walk and is even pet friendly. The
Hunger Walk started in January of 2009, in order to replace an annual auction
night/ blue jean ball that they have done in the past. It is hosted at Miromar Outlet
in Estero, Florida and has been the location for the Hunger Walk ever since it
was first introduced.
“Miromar supported use with some other food drives and activities
in the past, we knew the staff there and we went to them and said this is what
we’re thinking about doing, do you have any interest in helping us, and they
immediately said yes, and they been a great partner ever since,” said Marta
Hodson, Community Relations Manager.
“Before we went to Miromar we went to the person we were
working with at Wink, and said we’re thinking of doing this and would you guys
be interested in partnering with us, and they jumped at the chance and said “we’ll
take the lead on it”,” said Hodson
The trail for the hungry walk in around the shopping center
which is approximately 2 miles. Members of the community all come out to participate
and volunteer at the event.
Each year this event raises money to feed the hungry in
southwest Florida. In the first year the Hunger Walk was planned in about three
months and raised $52,000 and had about 200 people in attendance. They set a
$75,000 goal for the second Hunger Walk and surpassed it, raise $146,000. Which
was more than enough to convince the organization to make the Hunger Walk an
annual event. Within the 9 years the hunger walk was held both the number of
people and money raised has continued to increase. This year’s hunger walk had
estimated about over a thousand people in attendance with about $327,000
raised.
“In the nine years totaled, we’re probably at just over 2
million to 2.3 million raised, so we’re pretty pleased with that,” said Hodson.
