Wellesley Family Walks in Project Bread's 51st Walk for Hunger

One in 10 households in Massachusetts don’t have enough to eat. As a way to help feed hungry neighbors in need, Michelle Barrett, her husband Tim, and their daughter Elizabeth, of Wellesley, will participate in Project Bread’s 51st Walk for Hunger for the fourth year as a family.

Project Bread's Walk for Hunger, the oldest pledge walk in the country, shines a spotlight on the complex and undeniable reality of hunger in Massachusetts. On Sunday, May 5, Barrett’s family and members of Team Ignatius will be among an anticipated 10,000 people who walk along the historic Boston Common and Charles River to raise $2.4 million to support anti-hunger solutions across the state.

“I personally feel this is such an important issue because no parent should have to feel the shame of not being able to provide healthy food for their family,” says Barrett. “No child should be prevented from growing in their fullest intellectual and physical ability due to an inability to access a basic need that is abundantly available in our country.”

Barrett, now 47, has participated in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger since 1994 when she first moved to Boston as a graduate student at Boston College. She started walking as a way to get to know her new city—the Walk for Hunger route cut right through campus, and there was a buzz in the air that prompted her to register with a couple of friends. Little did she know, Project Bread and the Walk for Hunger would come to impact her life and her family in more ways than one.

Project Bread runs the Food Source Hotline, the only comprehensive statewide information and referral service in Massachusetts for people facing hunger. When Michelle’s husband Tim was considering a career change to the nonprofit sector, Michelle suggested he volunteer with the Food Source Hotline, which confirmed his desire to work for a mission-driven organization. He now works at the Pine Street Inn, one of Project Bread’s partner organizations and Walk for Hunger community grant recipients.

Michelle’s daughter, Elizabeth, now in eighth grade, has participated in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger since she was a toddler, either as a participant or volunteer, with her parents. When Elizabeth was in fourth grade, she encouraged her family to walk the entire 20-mile route for the first time. Michelle remembers the last few miles being very challenging and exhausting for both her and her husband, but their daughter cheered them on to the finish line.

This year, the family of three will again walk the full 20-mile route with their church, the Jesuit Parish of Saint Ignatius of Loyola in Chestnut Hill. Michelle is proud to see how much the Walk for Hunger has helped her daughter recognize the importance of what Project Bread does and instilled a sense of responsibility in her to fundraise for the cause.

“When she was doing the shorter routes, Elizabeth said she was just focused on having fun and talking with her friends,” Barrett recalls. ”But walking the entire route is challenging, which made her think about how people facing food insecurity are also struggling and facing difficult challenges.”

True to its grassroots beginnings, Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger is a call to action—bringing community partners, business leaders, walkers, volunteers, public officials, media and residents of all backgrounds together. Funds raised by the Walk strengthen Project Bread’s year-round effort to drive systems change and scalable solutions that can break the generational cycle of hunger. Money raised by Walk participants also provides critical support in preventing hunger through statewide community partners including soup kitchens, food pantries, food rescue organizations and more.

“Food insecurity is one of the few issues that we know how to solve in the United States,” says Barrett. “I have great respect for Project Bread and the Walk for Hunger and how they combine charity with social justice. They do a tremendous amount to meet immediate needs associated with food insecurity while also being a strong voice advocating for policy changes that will reduce the prevalence of food insecurity in the first place.”

Participants in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger can choose from three routes, all of which are kid and stroller friendly and start and end on the Boston Common, where a celebration with food and live music will be going on throughout the day: the traditional 20-mile route, 3-mile loop—new this year, and a 5K run through Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.

New this year, community anti-hunger organizations, many of which have been beneficiaries of the Walk in years past have the opportunity to raise money to directly support their own hunger relief programs, while also furthering Project Bread’s mission. Teams of participating anti-hunger organizations will keep sixty percent of money they raise with the remaining 40 percent going to the Walk fund in support of statewide grants.

To register for Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger, or to support the Barrett family and Team Ignatius, visit projectbread.org/walk-for-hunger or call (617) 723-5000.