Thank you for helping us raise over $1,200 in an effort to affect positive and systemic change to prevent hunger.    Also the team we started at Baker House has now raised over $30,000 to fight hunger!  We are proud.

Project Bread advocates change in our community and, while feeding the hungry now, attempts to implement changes to END hunger for the future.  It is an organization we believe in and have chosen to support for the last eight years.  We cannot express how grateful we are for your generosity and support in helping us strive for change in our community.

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It was a gorgeous day for a walk this year and we started bright and early so we would be done in time to watch the Celtics game.  After we crossed the finish line, we walked another mile back home and back to our pub to watch the game and finish off our mug cards! We figured it was a grand way to celebrate another successful Walk – we our now proud mug owners at our local pub.

Our dear friend Bloomer called us up with extra tickets to the Patriots Day afternoon game.  We had a great time catching up with him, watching the Sox get another win, spending some time in the sun and then watching some of the Boston Marathon as it runs right past Fenway. We saw some of our old Baker House kids dressed up as the Baker House mascots on the route.  Bloomer can see the race from his roof – it’s pretty cool.

Our last night in Baker House unpacked. We will treasure our time spent here forever. Baker, and our Baker family, was very good to us and this will always be a special place for us. Jeannette lived here when we got engaged, we got married here, we spent the first 4 years of our married life here, and we have made many dear friends here.

More pictures after the jump.

Today we walked our 6th Walk for Hunger. This means we have now walked 120 miles raising money to fight hunger and raising awareness for the hunger problem in Massachusetts. Thanks to our family and friends, this year we were able to raise over $1300 and our Baker House team raised over $6500 at last count (the total is still rising). The Baker House team has now raised over $20,000 over the last 5 years.  We had 11 walkers this year. It was a great walk! There are more pictures from the walk after the jump, as well as some hunger facts. But first I want to say a quick thank you to everyone for your support, financial and otherwise. Project Bread fights hunger and advocates change in the community in which Josh and I live. It is an organization that Josh and I believe in and choose to support year after year. We thank you for your support and solidarity in fighting hunger. As the state’s leading antihunger organization, Project Bread is dedicated to alleviating, preventing, and ultimately ending hunger in Massachusetts. In addition to organizing the annual Walk for Hunger and supporting emergency food programs statewide, Project Bread also advocates systematic solutions that prevent hunger in children and that provide food to families in everyday settings. Since 1969, Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger has provided critical resources for hungry children and families in Massachusetts.

Today, The Walk for Hunger is the oldest continual pledge walk in the country, and the largest annual one-day fundraiser to alleviate local hunger. It is one of the few walks dedicated to social justice. Money raised through The Walk for Hunger funds more than 400 food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, and food salvage programs in 128 communities across Massachusetts. The 20-mile Walk route weaves through Boston, Brookline, Newton, and Cambridge.

HUNGER FACTS FROM THE 2008 HUNGER STATUS REPORT
* More than 70 percent of families in low-income neighborhoods report having run out of money to make a meal. Nearly one third of the families say they cut the size of their children’s meals or a child missed a meal because there was not enough money.

* Hunger continues to be prevalent in Massachusetts with 522,000 people struggling to put food on the table. Hunger is primarily found in low-income communities, where the rate is six times higher than the statewide average. Hunger damages everyone it touches; however, certain groups —children, senior adults, and people with chronic illness — are especially vulnerable. For them, even short periods of food insecurity can lead to a health emergency.

* The most recent measurement revealed that 198,380 households or 8.1 percent of all Massachusetts households were food insecure with more than one third of these experiencing hunger. This is an increase from 20012003 when 6.2 percent of Massachusetts households were food insecure and 2.3 percent were found to be food insecure with hunger.

Elle & Wilson & Jeannette & Will