You can help feed hungry neighbors with just a walk – or run – in the park. Mark your calendar for Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015 for the 23rd Annual Walk for Bread & 5k Run at Pine Banks Park in Melrose & Malden.
The event benefits local non-profit Bread of Life, which distributed over 1,030,000 meals last year to needy families and individuals in Malden, Melrose, Everett, Medford, Wakefield, Stoneham, Winchester, Saugus, Reading and North Reading.
According to Project Bread, a Boston leader in fundraising and public policy around hunger, “For most of us, hunger is a fleeting need we can satisfy quickly. But hunger isn’t fleeting for 11.4% of Massachusetts’s households—the 700,000 children and adults who don’t always know where their next meal will come from. And this percentage is almost 40% higher than it was at the start of the last recession…and almost 80% higher than it was at the start of the previous decade.”
Locally, Bread of Life’s food pantries, evening meals, and outreach services for senior citizens and homeless families continue to expand. “This is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” said Thomas Feagley, Executive Director, “We rely on the compassion and involvement of many, many neighbors to help provide meals for the hungry and homeless by gathering walk and run pledges and spreading the word about our organization.”
Participants are invited to sponsor themselves or raise pledges from friends, family and co-workers. All registered participants will receive a free T-shirt the day of the event, along with healthy snacks and take-aways provided by local businesses. Top-finishing runners will receive trophies. Live music & face-painting will add to the party atmosphere of the day.
The Walk for Bread & 5K Run:
- Sunday, October 4, 2015 Pine Banks Park, Main Street, Melrose and Malden
- Runners – register for $25 online in advance, or on the day of the event at noon.
- Walkers – please fill out a pledge sheet and collect your pledges.
Turn them in at the Registration table on the day of the event at noon.
- You can also register and collect pledges online, or download a printable pledge sheet, by going to: www.breadoflifemalden.org/WalkForBread.html
- The Run/Walk begins at 1pm. Registration begins at 12pm.
About Bread of Life – Bread of Life (BOL) brings together over 500 volunteers from our 37 partner organizations and the community at large to offer free food to hungry, homeless, and isolated people. Services include evening meals held four nights a week in Malden; food pantries serving residents of Malden, Everett, Medford, Melrose, Saugus, Stoneham, Reading, N. Reading, Wakefield and Winchester; grocery delivery to senior citizens in public housing in Malden, Everett, Melrose, Medford and Wakefield; and food delivery to homeless families sheltered in local motels. BOL provides over 1,030,000 meals a year for local families who are low-income, unemployed, homeless or living on retirement or disability fixed incomes. To learn more about BOL, please visit www.breadoflifemalden.org. Bread of Life is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.