Pantry Effort at Hunger Walk Breaks All Records.
Sep 19, 2010
As we do every summer, volunteers and staff from Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry took part in the 2010 Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Hunger Walk, a fundraising event that directly benefits the Depository’s network of 650 member food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters.
As we planned our participation, the Pantry had two goals in mind: to recruit 31 walkers, and raise a total of $5,500. And we’re happy to report that we surpassed both.
With 74 walkers, we were able to raise a record-setting $16,635 in donations, plus a bonus of $1,070 from Greater Chicago Food Depository, amounts that will make a real difference to the many families we serve within our community.
Food Pantry board member Bob Haisman was our most successful fundraiser of the day, a fact related in no small part to his own dedication to the cause. Struggling with physical therapy after two knee replacement operations, Bob decided to motivate himself by getting ready for the 5K (3 mile) walk, at the same time boosting awareness of the Pantry’s work. Many of his friends and loved ones were inspired by his decision and dug deep to help out.
“Let’s be honest,” Bob says with a chuckle, “three miles isn’t a marathon. But for me, it might as well have been.”
Bob has volunteered with the Pantry for many years – since even before it was housed in First United Church – but continues to have moments that remind him of why he got involved in the first place. He recalls, for instance, a cold January day on which he drove into the parking lot – only to find a line of pantry clients snaking out of the lot and up the block.
“It dawned on me that these people were lined up before the pantry opened up just to get a bag of groceries – and I just thought: In America? The richest country in the world? Seeing those lines of people, the seniors and children – wow. That haunts me.”
“Feeding children,” he says, “helping the poor, the disadvantaged, the marginalized….I was thrilled when our church opened its doors to the Food Pantry…. Good people coming together to help people in need. Holy cow! What’s not to like about that?”
At a time when government agencies find that food insecurity is on the rise, with one in four American children living in a house without sufficient food, we are very grateful to Bob and all the Hunger Walk participants, our regular volunteers, our staff, our Board members, and all the people in Oak Park and River Forest who donate time and funds whenever they can – it’s because of them that we’re able to do just what Bob says: Help people in need.