Rabbis Michael Wolk and Stan Miles at the 2014 Hunger Walk in Louisville. This year’s walk will be held Sunday. September 23, at Harbor Lawn in the Waterfront. (Photo provided)
As the High Holy Days approach, we look back at the past year and evaluate our behavior. Have we treated others fairly? Have we stepped up to do our share? Have we done enough to help those in need in our own community?
The reality is there are many people in Louisville today who can’t tell you where their next meal is coming from. The city has food deserts where fresh foods and good nutrition are not readily available and food insecurity is a significant problem.
Many of us support the Jewish Family & Career Services Food Pantry and the Meyer Food Pantry Fund as was evident with the great turnout for Pancakes 4 the Pantry earlier this month.
But there is more that can be done.
The 40th Anniversary Community Hunger Walk is Sunday, September 23, starting at Harbor Lawn in Waterfront Park. Registration and the Family Fun Fest open at noon, the opening ceremony will be at 2 p.m. and the two-mile walk will begin at 2:15. The event will conclude at 4 p.m., just in time for the festival of Sukkot – the celebration of the fall harvest.
Dare to Care was established after 9-year-old Bobby Ellis died of starvation in Louisville’s Russell neighborhood on Thanksgiving Day 1969. Rabbi Herbert Waller of The Temple was one of the organization’s founders.
The first community Hunger Walk was held in 1978 to raise money for Dare to Care thus enabling the organization to feed more people. Today, Dare to Care feeds 134,000 each year.
Register today for the Jewish Louisville team at thehungerwalk.org. The suggested minimum donation is $25 for adults and $15 for children, although larger donations are always welcome.
Please join us for this 2-mile walk around the Great Lawn. We’ll head down Witherspoon Street to River Road. As we approach the Big Four Bridge, we’ll turn toward the river and head back past the Lincoln statue to the Harbor Lawn.
If you can’t do the walk itself, you can still be part of the team and help fulfill the mitzvah of feeding the hungry just in time for Sukkot. Help the Jewish community maintain its record as one of the most generous supporters of the annual Hunger Walk.
(Shiela Steinman Wallace is the 2018 Hunger Walk Chair for the Jewish Community Relations Council.)