The first time Belmont resident Gail Breeze participated in the Walk for Hunger, she admits it was partly because it seemed to be an activity she could do with her son, who was 9 years old at the time and clinically hyperactive.
“It wasn’t entirely altruistic because I wanted some activity, but I also wanted to teach him about helping others,” she recalled. “This just seemed like the perfect thing.”
That was 1974. Together, they completed what was then a 20-mile walk. There were no food or water stops, so they carried what they could for sustenance. They stopped in churches for bathroom breaks.
“He made it—and he more than made it,” she said.
At the end of the walk, her son got off the train and later hopped on his bicycle for a ride.
“At that point, I could hardly walk. I decided I better get into shape,” she said. “The next one, I had no trouble, and he, of course, had no trouble.”
The Walk for Hunger is the food assistance nonprofit Project Bread’s flagship community fundraiser. This year, it’s set to take place around Boston Common on Sunday, May 4, from 9 a.m. to noon. It will include family-friendly activities, food, and entertainment.
“It is becoming more and more difficult for people to afford enough to eat,” Erin McAleer, president and CEO of Project Bread, said in a statement. “One in five families with kids are worried about where their next meal will come from. The Walk for Hunger is our opportunity to make an immediate difference in the lives of thousands of our neighbors. The people—our walkers, volunteers, and donors—are what make The Walk for Hunger such a powerful event. Together, as a community, we’re making sure people can access food with dignity and choice each day.”
After that first walk in 1974, Breeze and her son returned each year until 1978, when she ran the 20-mile route. The following year, her family moved away from the Boston area and while she did other charity walks, she didn’t participate in the Walk for Hunger again until 2000. Since then, she’s walked, or race-walked, in every event since, even those that were held remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year will mark her 30th walk, she said. Unlike her first years of participating in the event, the course is now a three-mile loop on Boston Common, which she plans to complete three times for a total of nine miles.
“I’m so disappointed it’s not 20 miles anymore,” she said. “We went by the brownstones and all these houses and beautiful flowers and along the Charles River. It was a really nice walk. But I totally get it—it’s just too expensive. Why not use that money on hunger?”
After years of completing the walks with her son, who eventually moved on to pursue different interests, Breeze, 85, now participates solo.
“I like to keep up the pace,” she said. “The early ones I ran and then I started to race-walk. I talk to some people along the way.”
Each year she has participated, the Belmont resident raised roughly $5,000, a fundraising goal she hopes to reach this year.
“I hate the idea of people going hungry, especially families and children,” said Breeze, who volunteers at Friday Cafe, which operates out of First Church Congregational in Harvard Square, Cambridge. “On Fridays, we offer hot meals to unsheltered [people] and people that are marginalized food-wise. I’ve had a chance to talk to people that way. People are just so appreciative.”
With federal cuts to food assistance programs, particularly those for schools, “it’s even more important to raise funds for this,” according to Breeze.
“No matter what amount people raise—I have my own goals, people have theirs—you can make a difference,” she said. “No matter how much you raise, it’s still going to make a difference.”
To contribute to Breeze’s fundraising effort, go to tinyurl.com/GailHungerWalk
