The Hunger Run

Meet Kelsey Cobain, a senior at Gonzaga University majoring in public relations. She’s also a new Marketing intern at UGM helping prepare for an event in April.

Kelsey has a heart to care for the poor, homeless, and hungry that motivated her to engage with both Second Harvest and UGM in the past year. For her, homelessness strikes a chord.

Growing up, Kelsey remembers her uncle struggled with mental illness, which often left him homeless.

“He had a very extreme form of schizophrenia, so he was on and off the streets or he would run away. He was always just up and down and never could get a steady grasp on his illness.”

Her uncle’s situation led her to research and get involved with fighting homelessness and hunger, learning more about the underlying causes of homelessness.

“There are people on the streets due to substance abuse, but you can’t really stereotype and say that all people who are homeless are using substances.”

Kelsey found that many end up on the streets because of poverty, abuse, or untreated mental illness like her uncle’s.

Getting involved in Second Harvest, she discovered that hunger is a substantial problem in our community. She explains that coming to UGM, “I knew that 1 in 7 people struggle with hunger and 1 in 4 children have chronic food shortages at home.

“Hunger is such a pressing issue, and we are in a tight community in the Inland Northwest. I feel like we should all join together for a worthy cause…we can all bring it together and do something great.”

Kelsey believes the Hunger Run is an opportunity for the community to rally alongside Second Harvest and UGM to do just that – join together to fight the all too prevalent problem of hunger.

You can help fight hunger by participating in the Hunger Run, a 5K run/walk on April 2 at Mirabeau Meadows Park in Spokane Valley. Proceeds will be used to feed those coming to UGM and stock Second Harvest’s various food banks in the Inland Northwest.

“I really like the cause of the Hunger Run,” Kelsey says. “I think it’s such a great cause because it is such a big issue in the Inland Northwest and many people are missing their meals.”

Kelsey will be running on April 2, and we hope you’ll also run with us as we gain ground in ensuring no one in our community need miss a meal.

Follow along with us leading up to the Hunger Run!