September is Hunger Action Month. The United Way of Murray-Calloway County and WoodmenLife are partnering for a Hunger Banquet on September 27 to raise awareness of food insecurity in Calloway and collect donations to benefit Needline and Soup for the Soul. WoodmenLife’s Angie Hatton and United Way director Gerald Washington talk about the event with Austin Carter on Sounds Good.
Washington says people come to the United Way office two or three times a week looking for food assistance. Hatton adds that one out of every five people in Calloway lives below the poverty line and one in six children is food insecure, meaning they don’t always know where they will get their next meal.
“Food security is not just about food on the table,” Hatton said. “It’s really a measure of economic stability overall because when you can’t get enough food on your table maybe that also means that you can't pay your medical bills, that means that you have trouble making your house payment or making your rent each month.”
Washington says the United Way has three emphasis areas: education, health and wellness, and financial stability. He says when you take one of those away, the others collapse.
“Seven percent of United Way monies go toward health and wellness, those core needs in the community that people take for granted,” Washington said.
Hunger Banquet participants will receive high, median, or low income personas to determine where they will sit. Tables will discuss how situations like losing a job or having sick kids would impact each persona.
Tickets to the event are available for a suggested $15 donation at both the WoodmenLife office and the United Way office. The Hunger Banquet begins at 6:00 p.m. at the WoodenLife Hall on the corner of CC Lowry Drive and 4th Street. Sirloin Stockade is providing the food.
