Wally Haas, a member of the Mayor’s Hunger Campaign, talks Friday, July 29, 2022, with Mayor Tom McNamara after a proclamation was read in honor of the annual campaign to raise funds for local food pantries. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)
    By Mary Sisk
    Rock River Current
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    ROCKFORD — Mayor Tom McNamara is encouraging people to support local food pantries, which are seeing increased need as the community grapples with inflation and rising food costs.

    The Mayor’s Hunger Campaign is a six-week initiative in partnership with the Greater Rockford Food Pantry Coalition running through Aug. 13. It aims to encourage both volunteer work and donations to the nine pantries that make up the coalition.

    “Each one of these pantries are seeing more and more new clients, which is deeply concerning,” McNamara said Friday after issuing a proclamation in recognition of the campaign. “We really want to call attention to this campaign.”

    There has been a 22% increase in new clients at local food pantries, according to Wally Haas, a member of the Mayor’s Hunger Campaign and the opinion editor emeritus for the Rockford Register Star. (Haas is also the father of the Rock River Current’s managing editor, Kevin Haas.)

    “All we ask is donate whatever you can,” Haas said Friday at a news conference at City Hall in which the proclamation was given. “We know everybody is hurting right now with inflation, high gas prices, high grocery prices, but there are people who are worse off than we are and they need our help.”

    More information on food pantries: ‘The need is ever-increasing’: Rockford area food pantries serving over 68% more people each month 

    The Mayor’s Hunger Luncheon was founded in the 1980s by former Mayor John McNamara, the father of Tom McNamara. Tom McNamara revitalized the event in 2018 after a 10-year hiatus into what is now the hunger campaign.

    More information

    For additional information and ways to donate to the Greater Rockford Food Pantry Coalition, visit their website greaterrockfordpantrycoalition.com.


    This article is by Mary Sisk. Email her at msisk@rockrivercurrent.com or follow her on Instagram at @maryrrcurrent

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