This time of year everyone is talking about what they’re thankful for, and the hungry of Forsyth County are thankful for the nonprofit organization Feed the Hungry Forsyth. The two amazing founders, Allen and Allison Madding, have gathered great amounts of food and distributed it to shelters all around Forsyth. They have thrown their all into this foundation, using fund raisers such as their upcoming Turkey Trot 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon to fund the storage facility and the refrigerated truck.

Mr. Madding stated that a mission trip to Venezuela inspired thought of how to help people in our own community instead of the people thousands of miles.  The miraculous quantity of awareness and support they have raised is helping to being the community together, perfect for this holiday season. Before hearing of Mr. and Mrs. Madding’s organization, I had never realized that there were people starving in our community.  There are 16,740 people, 10,000 of which are children, starving in Forsyth County.

They do three things: find, fund, and feed. They find funding, volunteers and food. They use funds for trucks to deliver food to food pantries.  There are 28 food pantries in Forsyth County. Mr. Madding identified gap in the food shelters. There are not nearly enough facilities giving out barely enough food. Feed the Hungry Forsyth has moved 70,000+ pounds of food, this year, and they collected 12,750 pounds of food at the fair.

Feed the Hungry Forsyth uses food rescue as a tactic to help the hungry. Food rescue is the collection of perfectly edible food from restaurants, food that would be thrown away otherwise. Lenny’s, Sam’s Club, Longhorn, Good Grub Subs, and Mia’s Pizza and Eats are just a few of the sponsors donating to the cause. NFHS Drama Club benefited Feed the Hungry Forsyth recently, also. Look for the Feed the Hungry Forsyth decal in local restaurant windows. This is a sign that they support Feed the Hungry Forsyth.

As a community we can encourage restaurants to donate, contribute canned goods, volunteer, and participate in fundraisers. We can be aware of students with reduced lunch or free lunch because that could be the only meal they eat. For more information or to apply for volunteering, visit FeedForsyth.org, find their Facebook page, or Twitter.

The foundation is doing many fund raisers to help them expand. They are looking to hire an operations manager, a second driver, and a second truck to increase deliveries. Some of the upcoming events are a Holiday canned good drive, and the Turkey Trot with approximately 2000 runners.

Works Cited:

• “Turkey Trot 5K, 10K, 15K and Half Marathon.” Five Star. Five Star NTP, n.d. Web. 21 Nov 2013. <http://www.fivestarntp.com/Turkey_Trot.html>.