Walkers Nationwide Encouraged to Stomp Out Hunger

Food For The Poor’s fifth annual "Walk For Hunger," a three-mile walk/run on Lynn University’s campus in Boca Raton is quickly approaching. Do your part on Oct. 2 to feed starving children and their families in Haiti, while raising awareness about the plight of the poor in that country through Food For The Poor, one of the most efficient charities in the United States.

Humanitarians nationwide are invited to register online to walk with us in person or participate from afar in your own community, as we lace up our sneakers to feed those who are unable to feed themselves in Haiti. With your support, we can focus attention on Haiti’s deadly malnutrition problem that has been magnified by the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

This year’s top fundraiser will receive an Apple iPad – second through fifth place winners will receive free Apple iPod nanos. If you do not live in Florida, you can still participate and spread the word through Food For The Poor’s Facebook event page.

Visit the Walk For Hunger web page to register, start a team, encourage your friends, or make a donation. Utilize the “Participant Center” online to create a fundraising page, share your goal with friends, family coworkers and all contacts, while you monitor your progress. Corporate teams to participate in Food For The Poor’s walk/run range from major league baseball team, the Florida Marlins, to environmentally minded organizations, such as South Florida Waste Management District.

Cost of pre-registration is $20 for adults and teens, $15 for children ages 6-10, and no fee for children 5 years old and under. The registration cost for South Florida walkers includes a T-Shirt and lunch. Special awards will be given to the teams and individuals who raise the largest amount of pledges. For more information, please call 1-888-404-4248 or visit the Walk For Hunger online.

Food For The Poor can feed 10 families for $120 a month. The goal this year is to raise enough to feed 4,000 destitute families for a month in Haiti. Students countrywide in need of community service hours are encouraged to participate.

For the event, Lynn University students will help build a pre-fabricated 12-by-12 foot yellow house on the university’s lawn near the student center. The house is a smaller model of the 61,200 homes Food For The Poor has built and given to destitute families since 1982.

Sponsors this year include Lynn University, Wells Fargo, Whole Foods Market, Melting Pot, 620 Subs, and Winners Award Group.

Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed the millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. To learn more, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org.