Hunger Walk Sets Fundraising Record
Thursday, September 13, 2018
by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer
The fourth annual Hunger Walk was the most successful yet, bringing in more than $25,000.
The event, sponsored by the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club, benefits the Community Action Committee (CAC) in Sewanee and the Morton Memorial UMC Food Ministry in Monteagle. After expenses, the net proceeds from the walk will mean about $10,000 for each food pantry, said John Noffsinger, chair of the Hunger Walk Committee.
“I was very impressed with the generosity of the community and their willingness to help raise money for the two food pantries and for those less fortunate,” Noffsinger said. “We also had a lot of University of the South support with many students making the walk, including the women’s softball team and fraternities Delta Tau Delta and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.”
A total of 62 businesses and 21 families donated to the Hunger Walk as partners, Noffsinger said. Lodge Manufacturing was the title sponsor for a second year and Day Spring Farm also made a significant donation after the event, he added.
An estimated 215 people entered the five-mile walk, which raised an additional $4,000.
Noffsinger praised the efforts of the organizers of the event. The Hunger Walk team included Rotarians Rich Wyckoff, John Goodson, Lee Harmon, John Solomon and Mike Roark; food pantry leaders Betty Carpenter and Amy Wilson; VISTA coordinator Sarah Hess; Big A Marketing’s Aaron Welch; and Rotarian and University representative Dixon Myers.