Race to benefit Weymouth Food Pantry - The Patriot Ledger

Race to benefit Weymouth Food Pantry - The Patriot Ledger

WEYMOUTH — The Weymouth Food Pantry will host its fourth annual race to raise money needed to stock its shelves with fresh fruits and vegetables.

The FreshBite 5K Hunger Run will take place on Saturday, June 15 at Wompatuck State Park. The event is the pantry’s largest fundraiser.

The pantry spends about a third of its annual food budget on fresh food. Staples like rice, peanut butter and canned foods are also important, and food drives help keep pantry shelves stocked with stable, nonperishable items that are the cornerstone of any pantry.

But Pam Denholm, executive director of the Weymouth Food Pantry, said fresh food like fruits and vegetables has to be bought fresh, and doing so requires the financial backing of a community.

“As the relationship between eating fresh food and health becomes clearer, so too does the need for food pantries to offer more fresh options,” Denholm said in a press release. “Many of our neighbors who rely on the pantry to help meet their needs are already facing some sort of health challenge, and are often having to make difficult choices between buying food, or paying medical bills, or buying medicine."

The race is professionally timed for runners. There is also a one-mile option for walkers. The tree-lined pathways at Wompatuck State Park are paved, making it easy to bring strollers and young kids can enough a scavenger hunt along the way.

Every dollar raised during the race is spent on food, putting money back into the community.

“People visit the pantry when they have nowhere else to turn, and if we truly want to help in a way that’s meaningful, we need to prioritize health and make sure we have fresh fruits and vegetables available every time we open our doors," Denholm said.

The FreshBite 5K will start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 15. Registration and check-in will run from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. The event includes yoga stretch to start the day off, a scavenger hunt for the kids, raffles and prizes.

The Weymouth Food Pantry serves approximately 1,000 families in Weymouth at any given time, averaging between 70 and 115 per service day. Last year they distributed 441,131 pounds of food and spent $43,000 on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Weymouth Food Pantry offers the following assistance to residents in need: free groceries, half-off pricing at the local farmers market, resources to learn to grow food at home, home delivery for homebound elders and people with disabilities, a weekend back pack program through some Weymouth schools, Thanksgiving and Holiday meal assistance, referrals to further resources and neighborhood-specific programming.

For more information or to sign up, visit http://bit.ly/2WE1mFS