When longtime Buckhead resident Jimmie Phillips was unable to walk in Atlanta’s 25th anniversary Hunger Walk, canceled March 1 because of snow, she was eager to deliver the nearly $1,500 she had collected.
Phillips, who has participated in every Hunger Walk, was looking forward to celebrating her 83rd birthday with 25 of her closest friends at the walk.
She credits Polly Parker and Nell Roberts for bringing her to walk with them the first year and an interaction with a homeless man for bringing her back every year.
“We were in a restaurant, and he was eating the food that people left on tables,” Phillips said. “I made eye contact with him, and to this day I have never forgotten that man’s expression of hopelessness. That’s when I was inspired.”
Over her 25 years of participating, Phillips has raised more than $50,000 to fight hunger.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank and five other organizations with hunger relief programs benefit from the Hunger Walk/Run: Episcopal Charities Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, Lutheran Services of Georgia, Presbyterian Answer to Hunger and St. Vincent de Paul Society.
The food bank encourages all who raised funds for the Hunger Walk to bring or mail their donations to the facility at 732 Joseph E. Lowery Blvd. NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30318-6628. Walk-in donations will be accepted weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for several weeks.
Anyone bringing a donation of $25 or more will receive a commemorative Hunger Walk/Run T-shirt while supplies last. Donations also can be made at www.ACFB.org.