In a time where local food pantries need more support than ever, the Monadnock Hunger Walk is continuing – though in a new form, say its organizers.
The Monadnock Hunger Walk was established in 2017, to replace the CROP Hunger Walk, a national event once held annually to support local food pantries as well as Church World Service. For the Monadnock Hunger Walk, residents from all over the region collect sponsorships for their preferred food pantry, to raise money for their cause.
“This year must be different. This is an extraordinary time for food pantries which are seeing unprecedented need,” organizer Julie Flood Page said.
This year’s Monadnock Hunger Walk was originally scheduled for May 2. That walk can’t go forward, organizer Owen Houghton said. Instead, during the entire month of April, residents can arrange their own “Hunger Walk.”
The event is planned to run, for the most part, similarly to how it has in the past. Walkers collect sponsors, and ask them to send a check directly to the food pantry of their choice. Then, the walkers take a 2-3 mile walk somewhere safely distanced from other, and take a selfie of themselves fulfilling their obligation to share with social media.
Since it’s inception, the walk has raised tens of thousands of dollars for local food panties.
“Even though the walk can’t go on, we still want to use that same idea and keep it alive,” Flood Page said. “They just need cash at this point, so they can go wherever they can to buy food.”
Houghton said the Peterborough Lions Club has already committed to donating $1,000 each to the ConVal High School End 68 Hours of Hunger program and $1,000 to the Peterborough Food Pantry, and the Jaffrey-Rindge Rotary Club has also pledged $1,000 each to the Jaffrey and Rindge Food Pantries.
“So we’re already off to a good start,” Houghton said. “There is a big need for support.”
Food pantries are currently seeing more participants than ever, with fewer hands to work with as many of their volunteers are self-isolating.
Kathleen LaRou of the Jaffrey Food Pantry said since the state issued its most recent stay-at-home order, the pantry has been seeing more people than ever.
“People who have lost their jobs, people from other towns, or people we haven’t seen in ten years,” LaRou said.
Stella Lalling, a member of the board for the Rindge Food Pantry, said they too, have seen an increase in new people using the pantry as they have been laid off or furloughed.
“We see folks like that, that we haven’t seen before,” Lalling said.
Both the Jaffrey and Rindge Food Pantries rely on donations from the local Rindge grocery stores, particularly for things such as meat, Lalling and LaRou said, and the supplies have dried up as Hannaford and Market Basket are struggling to keep meat stocked for their own customers.
Jaffrey and Rindge Food Pantries said the most helpful donations for them right now are the kinds of donations generated by the Monadnock Hunger Walk – cash. Currently, every donation of food that comes in must be disinfected, a process that takes up volunteer time when they are short on hands.
For more information, visit the Monadnock Hunger Walk 2020 Facebook page, or contact Preston Wakeman at 532-7044 or lindawakeman0@gmail.com, Julie Flood Page at 899-9759 or juliefloodpage@gmail.com or Brenda Pelkey at 532-6029 or bjrpelkey@yahoo.com.
If you wish to make a donation to local participating food pantries, checks can be mailed to the following locations:
■Helping Hands
1 Depot St.
Troy, NH 03465
■Jaffrey Food Pantry
54 Main St.
Jaffrey, NH 03452
■Rindge Food Pantry
PO Box 738
Rindge, NH 03461
■Got Lunch
PO Box 451
Rindge, NH 10461
■Peterborough Food Pantry
c/o Peterborough Town House
1 Grove St.
Peterborough, NH 03458
■Coventry Church Ministry Center
Greenfield Food Pantry
12 Depot St.
Greenfield, NH 03047
■Greenville/St Vincent Food Pantry
Sacred Heart Church
15 High St.
■South Meadow School Pantry
108 Hancock Road
Peterborough, NH 03458
■Faith Food Pantry
c/o Congregational Church of Temple
PO Box 115
Temple, NH 03084
■Antrim/Bennington Food Pantry
PO Box 206
Antrim, NH 03440