As food insecurity rises across the state, over 4,500 people joined the 57th annual Walk for Hunger to help feed residents across Massachusetts on Sunday morning.
“Right now, about one in five families, or 20% of families in Massachusetts are food insecure,” said Project 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.”
Thousands joined in the annual fundraising event to support anti-hunger work throughout the state Sunday morning, including a 3-mile loop around the Boston Common, speakers, live music, local food vendors, and a cooking demo.
Project Bread, along with 51 organizations doing anti-hunger work, met their $1 million fundraising goal. The funds go to programs like Project Bread’s confidential toll free FoodSource Hotline and over 1,400 meal sites for kids, as well as research, advocacy and community engagement, McAleer said.
“We can’t do it alone, we need to do it with the community of supporters behind us,” McAleer said, calling the residents’ support Sunday in raising money and advocating to their legislators “huge.”
“We like to do what we can,” said Tammy Smith, walking with her kid in their matching yellow shirts after the event 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 said though they met their fundraising goal, it was “set several months ago when things were a little bit different” and they intend to keep raising funds.
Due to economic policies and elevating inflation, food prices are expected to continue to go up, she said, and at the same time, cuts are being proposed for federal food-assistance programs like SNAP, school 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,” said 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.”
