On The Front Lines of Fighting Hunger — The People I Met on a 43 Mile Walk Across Massachusetts.
UPDATE: I’m marching again in 2022. Here is the link to donate — every dollar means 4 more meals for people in our community.
The week of Thanksgiving I walked 43 miles from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Greenfield, Massachusetts to raise awareness about food insecurity in our region and raise money for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. There are roughly 230,000 people in our area who are food insecure. That’s one in every four people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Thanks to the support of my amazing community, near and far, I was able to raise more than $2,000 to contribute to a total of $236,000 raised over the course of two days.
I’ve never done a long distance walk of this kind before, and there were moments over the course of those two days when I didn’t know if I would be able to finish. At those most difficult points it was the people I met along the way that kept me putting one foot in front of the other. I wanted to share a few of those people with you, to honor the work they do everyday, and encourage you to support their efforts and the work of people like them around the country.
Ronn Johnson, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr., Family Services Inc., Springfield, MA
We started day one at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Springfield, which provides a range of services from afterschool programs to shelters to family skills and support. In the video below Johnson talks about the influx of new families from Puerto Rico who are increasingly using the center’s services.
Andréa Marion, Executive Director, Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen, Chicopee, MA
Our second stop was Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen, where Andréa Marion talked about how front line service providers like her partner with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. According to their website, more than 10% of the residents of Chicopee are served by Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen.
Shannon Rudder, Executive Director, Kate’s Kitchen, Holyoke, MA
The audio here is a bit hard to hear but Shannon Marion says that on any given day there are 150 to 200 people who take advantage of Kate’s Kitchen in Holyoke. From June 2016 to June 2017 Kate’s Kitchen served 63,000 people. Kate’s Kitchen also runs FoodWorks, a culinary training program for unemployed and under-employed individuals.
Betty Medina Lichtenstein, Founder, Enlace de Familias, Holyoke, MA
Enlace de Familias is the number one entry point in Massachusetts for people fleeing Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The center provides a range of services from food and clothing to help navigating FEMA registration, schools and more. Betty Medina Lichtenstein talked about the growing need to support Holyoke’s newest residents.
Mindy Domb, Executive Director, Amherst Survival Center
More than 200 volunteers help the Amherst Survival Center serve close to 6,000 people a year. Their website lists a range of services they offer for free, such as Food Pantry, Drop-In Health Clinic, Food Recovery Network, yoga and exercise classes, job readiness workshops and more.
Neftalí Duran, chef and food activist, Nuestras Raices, Holyoke, MA
Neftalí is a chef and food educator who leads the Nuestra Comida Project at Nuestras Raices, an urban agriculture and food justice organization in Holyoke. We didn’t stop by Nuestras Raices but we walked by it and Neftalí did the full 43 mile walk with us. He was joined by Brian Yazzie of The Sioux Chef restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Brian and Neftalí are part of a group of indigenous chefs, all members of tribes from around North America, that are forming the I-Collective to lift up indigenous food and practices. After the walk they headed immediately to New York City for a series of pop-up indigenous feasts.
Monte Belmonte, Host, WRSI
This was the eighth year that Monte has hosted Monte’s March for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. It began with just a one day walk from the WRSI studios in Northampton up to Greenfield, Massachusetts, but recently extended down to Springfield and Holyoke with an additional day. While walking Monte almost never stopped pushing his custom shopping cart, held numerous walking interviews, accepted donations from people who pulled over on the side of the road, and kept spirits high with all the marchers who followed him. Monte is in many ways the star of the show, and yet I was struck over and over again by the humbleness with which he engaged the service providers we met with, and the deep gratitude, kindness and sincerity he showed for their work. He exemplified a sense of service to others, all while keeping a swift pace.
The Musicians and the Marchers
Along the way I also met amazing fellow marchers, small business owners, and school classes who made signs and joined the march. At one point a Tibetan family stopped us with huge thermoses of tea, wrapping white scarves around Monte and Congressman Jim McGovern who also walked all 43 miles. Another time, a man came up and handed a wad of bills to Monte and quickly walked away. It turned out to be ten $100 bills, a $1,000 donation. Later, near the end of the march, we found out that children’s book author Mo Willems and his wife Cher donated $20,000.
Music accompanied us all along our path for the two days of walking. Some of the marchers brought banjos and guitars, some just sang. A school marching band met us on the side of the road and a bagpiper joined us for a stretch. Impromptu jam sessions broke out in parking lots and as we approached downtown Greenfield an amazing group of musicians met us and their music carried us across the finish line as we celebrated the incredible generosity of this valley we live in.
There are so many other people I met that I’d love to tell you about, so many moments of grace and good will, so many acts of hope, resistance and love. If you live in Western Massachusetts, come walk with us next year. If you are not, then find the people on the front lines of fighting hunger in your area and do what you can to support their work.
It’s not too late to give to support the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. For every dollar donated they can deliver three meals to people in our area.
