David G. Altman, Ph.D., a Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty member, is planning to bike across America to raise a $1 million endowment for Mazon, the Jewish response to hunger, and he''s seeking partners.
Altman, professor of public health sciences and pediatrics, said he also hoped to raise public awareness about the problem of hunger both in this country and abroad.
He said he conceived the project under the auspices of a National Leadership Program grant he received from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The $42,000 three-year grant is to finance a self-designed leadership action plan.
Altman is trying to enlist partners such as college organizations, schools, hunger organizations, biking clubs, corporations, and community-based groups who are willing to take on the challenge of helping hungry people.
Altman plans to start his cross-country trip in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2000, and finish on March 24 in Greensboro, N.C. He plans two- to three-day stops in Irvine and San Diego, Calif., Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., Las Cruces, N. M., El Paso, San Antonio, and Austin, Texas, Baton Rouge, La., Jackson, Miss., Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta, Ga., and Charlotte.
Along the way, he plans to arrange speeches and forums as well as talking about the problem of hunger with the news media. He will see how hunger has been addressed in the communities he rides through and share what he has learned with others.
Mazon, the Hebrew word for "food," was founded in 1986 as a non-profit organization to help Americans respond to hunger in the United States and abroad. Since 1986, Mazon has granted more than $16 million to a broad spectrum of nonprofit organizations working to ease suffering of hungry people, including Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina.
If you are interested in helping with this project, please contact David Altman at (336) 716-9556 (work), 336-218-0882 (home) or E-mail: daltman@rc.phs.wfubmc.edu. For more information, please see the web site at http://www.hungerrelief2000.org.
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Contact for Media Only: Robert Conn, Mark Wright or Jim Steele at (336) 716-4587.