Hunger Walk 2010 hopes for a big day on Sunday in Morristown
Posted by Kevin Coughlin on October 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment
You’re a 59-year-old woman whose husband has unexpectedly died, leaving nothing but debts. You have no children or other family and you’re too embarrassed to go to your friends. Your house and possessions are eventually seized to pay off your debts…
You live out of your car for two weeks, eating at the Soup Kitchen every day. Upon entering the Soup Kitchen one day, you see that you know all the volunteers – they’re members of your church and this is their day to serve. You try to back out of the door unnoticed, but a friend sees you and catches up with you in the driveway…
You might be surprised to hear stories like that in Morris County, the seventh-wealthiest county in the United States.
Yet Morristown’s Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center Inc. has hundreds of these stories. It will share some of them Sunday at its 14th annual Hunger Walk.
“Since the economy shifted, more and more people who never imagined being at a soup kitchen are here,” said Teresa Connolly, executive director of the nonprofit organization, which began 25 years ago at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.
Registration for Sunday's Hunger Walk starts at 1 pm at the Morristown Church of the Redeemer. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
St. Peter’s still serves lunches on Saturdays. For the rest of the week, the soup kitchen operates at Church of the Redeemer on South Street.
Guests line up at Community Soup Kitchen in Morristown last winter. Photo courtesy of the soup kitchen.
That’s where Sunday’s 3.1-mile Hunger Walk starts and ends. Registration is at 1 pm. Donations of any amount are welcome.
Walkers will stop at five checkpoints to collect index cards with stories like the one above.
It’s part of an educational campaign that includes visits by soup kitchen spokespersons to area schools and corporations.
This year’s index cards describe hard-luck sagas of downsized engineers, single mothers and 20-something college grads who cannot find work.
The soup kitchen is seeing growing numbers of women and “working poor”–day laborers and employees of local businesses who cannot make ends meet earning the minimum wage, said Marla Drury, the soup kitchen’s community outreach director.
Teresa estimated that 80 percent of the soup kitchen’s guests hold low-paying jobs, or are scraping by on Social Security or disability benefits.
Marla Drury of the Community Soup Kitchen in Morristown models t-shirt for Sunday's Hunger Walk. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
The number of meals served has increased by 50 percent over the last three years, Marla said. Last winter, volunteers were dishing out 300 meals a day.
The first hunger walk had 250 participants and raised $19,000. Organizers hope to attract 700 walkers and raise $80,000 this weekend.
Proceeds from past walks enabled the soup kitchen to offer job- and health counseling and other social services along with meals.
Corporate sponsors came on board last year. On Sunday, the Famished Frog will donate 15 percent from sales of meals to Hunger Walk participants who dine there after the event.
This year the soup kitchen also has teamed with Grow It Green Morristown, which operates two community gardens, to offer healthier menus to clients. A $42,000 grant from the Rippel Foundation supports that push.
Sunday’s top Hunger Walk fundraiser, meanwhile, will win a green prize: A day volunteering at the soup kitchen with the New York Jets.
Now what about that 59-year-old woman, the one who was living in her car? What happened to her?
For that index card, you’ll have to complete the Hunger Walk.
