I am constantly amazed at the thousands of people who join the Hand2Hand movement of ending local weekend child hunger. We have been selected as one of the Amway River Bank Run charities and once again, the goodness of people who care about kids in West Michigan is spilling over. We currently have about 50 runners who are signed up to run and raise funds and awareness for Hand2Hand, and I’d like to introduce you to just a few of them.
Derek is a businessman (who also has a mind for math):
“On May 9th I’ll be running in my third River Bank Run 25k. This year, I’m running to raise money for Hand2Hand. Hand2Hand is a non-profit that matches local churches with local schools to ensure that no child goes hungry over the weekend. Each Friday over 7,500 kids across 200 West Michigan schools have a bag of snacks and meals discreetly placed in their lockers so they don’t have to wonder whether or not they’ll get to eat before breakfast on Monday morning back at school.
To put the magnitude of what this organization does into perspective, consider this:
A 25K cover 25 kilometers or 15.53 miles.
My goal is to finish that distance in 2 hours and 15 minutes or less. If you lined up the kids that Hand2Hand serves across the entire distance of the race, I’d be passing one child every 1.1 seconds.
That’s astounding to me but it’s just the tip of the iceberg as there are still schools across West Michigan that Hand2Hand hasn’t reached.”
I was blown away when I read Derek’s calculation: Passing one of our current Hand2Hand students every 1.1 seconds. Wow! Together we are all making a huge impact in the lives of SO many kids!
Scott, one of our Hand2Hand school principals is also running for Hand2Hand. He is joined by his wife Jodi, and kids Maddy and Mason. (Jodi is also the Director of New Growth and Partnerships at Hand2Hand, and passionately grows Hand2Hand to reach more kids in West Michigan.)
“For those of you who know our family, Scott & Maddy running should not surprise anyone. Even Mason running this year is not a huge surprise as a cross country runner, but Jodi . . . that is another story! Then when you find out that she is running the 10K, you may react like our daughter and say, NO WAY YOU CAN DO THAT! That is how much Jodi is dedicated to feeding kids on the weekend!
All four of us are teaming up and running to support H2H! Consider supporting Team Joseph, and you will be supporting the mission to feed kids over the weekend across West Michigan.”
I love how the Joseph family is teaming up together to make yet another difference in reaching more students! These kids are bound for great things as their parents intentionally challenging them to run for other kids!
Finally, Jeremy is a Pastor from one of our church partners who is also running for Hand2Hand.
“I’m running because, together, I believe we can make a difference. It breaks my heart that so many children go home hungry over the weekend…but we aren’t helpless. We can be part of the solution. I’m running to both raise awareness and money for the ministry of Hand2Hand so that more children can go home, not to empty cupboards, but with weekend food in their backpacks. I’m running because those kids matter.”
Would you like to join our team of runners or donate to one of them as they run for kids? GO HERE!
I’m running the 10K as well and I’d love to see you there! Let’s link arms and ‘run any race at any pace’ and eliminate weekend child hunger in West Michigan!
Written by Cheri Hondred
