As some federal money to fight hunger is being cut, private efforts are stepping up. One is the yearly Tallahassee Food Challenge, organized by local marketer Brien Sorne. He says far too many people in Leon, Gadsden, Wakulla, Jefferson and Liberty counties are going hungry.
"In raw numbers, if I take the 400,000 people in those five counties, 14% of those being insecure amounts to 56,000 people."
Each year, the Tallahassee Food Challenge adopts a local human services non-profit organization that shares the prime mission of "Fill a bowl, feed the hungry."
"In this year's campaign it's ECHO, which has been providing food assistance for several decades going back into the 80s. But these days they're teaching people how to lift themselves out of an impoverished situation."
Sorne hopes the effort will generate many thousands of dollars to support ECHO's efforts in the 5-county region. Promotion for the campaign is made possible by the contributions of local commercial advertisers.
