Friday, January 16, 2015

The Works 10-for-$10 Donates $5330 to End 68 Hours of Hunger is a Success!


End 68 Hours of Hunger Receives Donation from The Works
Pictured are Cathy Brown, Somersworth Program Coordinator, Doug Eason, Member Services Manager and Claire Bloom, Executive Director of End 68 Hours of Hunger 


The Works Family Health & Fitness Center, the seacoast’s leading family-oriented health club, partnered with Somersworth End 68 Hours of Hunger to help raise money to support the organization’s effort to fight childhood hunger and food insecurity. Through the month of December, The Works sold gift certificates for guest visits to the club, and they sold out very quickly, raising $5330.

End 68 Hours of Hunger was established in New Hampshire in 2011 as a private, not-for-profit program that focuses on putting nourishing food in the hands of local children to carry them through the weekend. The name of the program refers to the approximately 68 hours of hunger that some school children experience between the free lunch they receive in school on Friday and the free breakfast they receive on Monday.

Volunteers purchase the food, pack the bags and deliver them to the offices of local schools. From there a school employee delivers the bag to the participating child. The students take the food home to eat on the weekend, and the cycle starts again, every week. Each bag of food costs $10 per week per child, and provides two breakfasts, two lunches and three diners with some left over to share.

“The Works found a way to encourage people to be healtier, have fun and to help our community,” said Claire Bloom, Executive Director of the program. “Their donation ensures that our own Somersworth children will continue to have food on the weekends, and be more successful in school.” Cathy Brown, the Somersworth Program Coordinator, said: “With the help of our wonderful volunteers, we are feeding more than 100 children here in Somersworth each weekend, and financial support like this allows me to focus on the job of feeding children.”

Doug Eason from The Works was very pleased with the success of the event, and has even higher hopes for next year. “It was a really great event! The staff had a great time supporting End 68 Hours of Hunger, and most importantly, money was raised for an excellent cause. We are looking forward to making this an even bigger and better event next year.”

End 68 Hours of Hunger can be found on the web at end68hoursofhunger.org, and The Works can be found at TheWorksHealthClub.com