LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Food pantries in the Lafayette area are teaming up for a fund drive that they hope will bring in enough money to extend their hours.
The Journal & Courier reports (https://on.jconline.com/Pqu7is ) Food Finders Food Bank, the Lafayette Urban Ministry and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center hope to raise $125,000 this year through the Hunger Hike program and a 5K race.
The groups aimed to raise $90,000 last year but fell $30,000 short of their goal despite a record turnout of walkers.
“It’s very ambitious, but we’ve been doing our work and we think that it’s a realistic goal,” Joe Micon, executive director of the Urban Ministry, said of the 2014 goal.
Micon said the goal was set after a Journal & Courier story compared Lafayette food pantry hours with those in Bloomington and found Lafayette’s lacking, especially on weekends.
The story showed that although Monroe County has 5,000 fewer food-insecure residents and five fewer food pantries, its average sum of weekly food pantry hours - 288 hours - dwarfs the 79 hours offered by Tippecanoe County pantries.
“We were really touched by that,” Micon said of the article. “We have decided that on June 1 of this year, the St. John’s/LUM food pantry will begin with Saturday afternoon hours. The way we will be funding that $5,000 to $8,000 cost is going to be with these Hunger Hike funds.”
Additional funds raised will be used to support Food Finder’s mobile food pantry program and expand a pilot program led by St. Thomas Aquinas that is equipping farmers in Haiti with a more viable bean crop.
Katy Bunder, executive director of Food Finders, said she’s optimistic about this year’s fundraising goal. A new six-member fundraising committee will work year-round to support the fundraiser and raise money in a more strategic way.
“I’m really excited about it,” Bunder said. “We’ve got so much energy behind it and we’re getting an early start, so I think we really will get there and we’ll have these funds to spend.”
The Hunger Hike 5K will take place at 8 a.m. Sept. 20 at West Lafayette’s Cumberland Park. The Hunger Hike will begin at 2 p.m. Sept. 21 at the Levee Plaza parking lot west of the Purdue Boathouse.
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Information from: Journal and Courier, https://www.jconline.com
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