Feeding Massachusetts: Project Bread

By OBOS — April 27, 2010

From 2009 – 2011, Our Bodies Ourselves honored the work of women’s health advocates worldwide by asking readers to nominate their favorite women’s health hero. View all nominees by year: 2009, 2010, 2011

Entrant: Anne Welch

Nominee: Project Bread

Project Bread serves the needs of Massachusetts families who struggle to put food on the table every year through the Walk for Hunger and other fundraising and advocacy activities. The Walk for Hunger is the nation’s oldest continual pledge walk in the country, and in 2008 raised an unprecedented $4 million dollars to help feed hungry families in Massachusetts.

According to its website, Project Bread funds over 400 food pantries, soup kitchens and food banks across Massachusetts and advocates for systematic solutions to prevent hunger. It helps put healthy and nutritious food in schools and on the tables of families across Massachusetts.

Additionally, Project Bread runs the only nationwide hunger hotline, and answers about 37,000 calls every year from families in need of food. Project Bread works in conjunction with many local schools, ensuring that children have a nutritious breakfast and lunch, even in the summer when school is not in session. According to Project Bread, too many families have been forced to choose between food or paying their bills, and they believe that no one should have to go hungry, or have to choose between eating and having a place to live. It is their mission to eradicate hunger in Massachusetts.

I nominate all the individuals involved with Project Bread, including the board of directors, walkers, volunteers, donors and anyone who advocates eradicating hunger, as it affects the health of men, women and children alike. The burden of caring for children and families so often falls on women, that in times of need it is comforting to know that there is assistance for those who need it. As a Walk for Hunger walker, I am very proud to have helped Project Bread with their mission.

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