As meals insecurity rises throughout the state, over 4,500 individuals joined the 57th annual Stroll for Starvation to assist feed residents throughout Massachusetts on Sunday morning.
“Right now, about one in five families, or 20% of families in Massachusetts are food insecure,” stated Mission Bread Erin McAleer. “Those are levels that we saw during the pandemic back in May of 2020. And the reason for it is just cost of living inflation. People are really struggling to get by.”
Hundreds joined within the annual fundraising occasion to help anti-hunger work all through the state Sunday morning, together with a 3-mile loop across the Boston Frequent, audio system, stay music, native meals distributors, and a cooking demo.
Mission Bread, together with 51 organizations doing anti-hunger work, met their $1 million fundraising purpose. The funds go to packages like Mission Bread’s confidential toll free FoodSource Hotline and over 1,400 meal websites for youths, in addition to analysis, advocacy and group engagement, McAleer stated.
“We can’t do it alone, we need to do it with the community of supporters behind us,” McAleer stated, calling the residents’ help Sunday in elevating cash and advocating to their legislators “huge.”
“We like to do what we can,” stated Tammy Smith, strolling together with her child of their matching yellow shirts after the occasion Sunday. “It’s important work — hunger and food insecurity has impacted people in my community — and we’re grateful to be a part of it today.”
McAleer stated although they met their fundraising purpose, it was “set several months ago when things were a little bit different” and so they intend to maintain elevating funds.
As a result of financial insurance policies and elevating inflation, meals costs are anticipated to proceed to go up, she stated, and on the identical time, cuts are being proposed for federal food-assistance packages like SNAP, faculty meals and WIC.
“These programs feed hundreds of thousands of people here in Massachusetts right now and typically during economic downturns, expand and serve more people,” stated McAleer. “What’s really scary, is we already have a hunger crisis. We’re expecting to get worse, but the very supports that are meant to help people during these type of challenging times are on the chopping block right now.”
