Painfully walking through the park can seem like a waste of time and energy. What if the next time you put your shoes on, it’s to put food on people’s tables or to help maintain the environment?
It’s a cold, dark winter afternoon, the kind of night when even the toughest runners can struggle to find the motivation to venture out. But possibly there wouldn’t be the same old “should-must-must-ow?” The discussion continues in Sarah Donaghy’s head, because tonight is the Food Bank Race.
Donaghy, an instructor and social worker at the Fareham Running Club in Hampshire, organised the first food bank drive in February 2018, along with the club’s secretary, James Musselwhite. “The concept that instead of our same educational career, we would fill backpacks with food to donate to the local food bank and run off, where volunteers would wait to get it,” he says. Donaghy expected about 20 members to participate: “I lost count when I got to 70. “
Claire Johnson, Community Team Leader at Waypoint Hub, which houses the Fareham Food Bank, says, “It was an emotional delight to see so many runners arrive at our building, bringing much-needed supplies. But it’s not just about the food bank that benefits. ” The riders enjoyed it,” says Donaghy. The next week, everyone was asking us when we could do it again. “
Vanessa King, head of psychology at the charity Action for Happiness, is rarely very surprised. King was the architect of the organization’s Ten Keys to a Happier Life and an e-book of the same title. Food Bank Run addresses several of them.
“You’ve got the feelgood factor of the run itself,” she says. “Physical activity is known to improve mood and can reduce stress, depression and anxiety. That’s then boosted by running with others and feeling part of a community. Humans are a social species. When we share positive moments of connection, we produce the hormone oxytocin, which reduces stress and attunes us more to others.” Studies also show that volunteering is associated with increased life satisfaction and decreased stress and depression.
Donaghy admits that running is “a lonely, even self-centered endeavor focused on individual functionality and personal achievement. Just being part of a running organization gives you a sense of belonging. With Food Bank Run, that sense of connection extends to the wider community.
The Food Bank Run has become an annual event for the Fareham Running Club, until the pandemic hit. When they were able to resume in 2022, Donaghy felt more passion than ever for helping those in need. She had recently given birth to a stillborn child. And members of her network, who provided her with cooked food for herself and her family every night for a fortnight, had given her a sense of what it means to receive help.
“It’s our most important race so far,” he says. The runners brought so much food that we had to drive some of it. When I was given a house that night, I thought, “We want to expand this nationally. “She wrote to each and every running club in the country inviting them to “To my surprise, they kept saying yes. “
A running kit brand, Runr, joined us for the exhibition and coordination of the event, creating a Food Bank Run website, with an interactive map of events.
“Last year, more than 500 running groups, clubs, events and parkruns got involved, donating more than 77 tonnes of supplies to food banks in their communities,” says Craig Winter, one of the founders of Runr.
This year, the Food Bank Run movement aims even higher, and for a smart reason. The Trussell Trust, the charity that runs part of the UK’s food banks, reported a 37% increase in the number of users between April 2022 and March 2023, compared to last year. And the demand continues to grow. ” This is proving to be one of the harshest winters yet for our network food banks,” says Emma Revie, its executive director. “On average, they provide an emergency package every 8 seconds. “
Food Bank Run encourages runners to plan events in February, a time when food banks tend to struggle. “People give in as Christmas approaches, but at the beginning of the year, after spending more than usual and with expenses going up, no one is donating,” Donaghy says. More and more clubs are organising two or three races every year. The Fareham Food Bank now has four local running clubs and teams supporting it; Last year it got almost a ton of donations.
The Food Bank Run is the only initiative that inspires others to put on their shoes for a smart cause. GoodGym, which started in 2010, has 59 pieces of equipment across the UK. His weekly sessions combine career with participation in network projects. Volunteers also stop at isolated seniors to chat or help them with small jobs.
Meanwhile, Runaway Racing, a Buckinghamshire-based running events organisation, has teamed up with a local conservation group to help clear scrub and maintain habitat in the Chiltern Hills, which is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Volunteers run the 8km to the work site as a group, where they are provided with tools – and tea and biscuits – and given direction. “As runners, we use the footpaths, we appreciate the nice surroundings – so it’s great to be able to give something back,” says Chris Bradley, its founder.
All of those companies share one element: joining others in a physical activity that has a genuine purpose. It’s not about “I have to do this long run because I’m training for a marathon” or “I want to work out because I’m looking to lose weight,” but something bigger.
As Kelly McGonigal, psychologist and fitness instructor, writes in The Joy of Movement: “When physical activity is maximally psychologically satisfying, it is because our participation shows the smart in us and we witness the smart in others. »
Maybe this could help us solve the conundrum posed by exercise in the modern world. “In our evolutionary past, there was no such thing as exercise,” says Dr David Raichlen, a professor of human and evolutionary biology at the University of Southern California. “Our ancestors were highly physically active, but there was always a purpose behind that activity – the need to find food, water and firewood, or to move between camps or migrate to other parts of the landscape.” If there was no necessity to expend energy on movement, we stayed still.
As part of his research, Raichlen spent time with members of one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies, the Hadza, in northern Tanzania. “The Hadza are incredibly active, but when I told them that at home I would get up when it was still dark to do a big loop and not forage for food while I was doing it, they laughed,” he said. They thought I was crazy. Their attitude is: why would you do that?You’ve got food!
Having eliminated virtually all mandatory physical activity from our lives, we find ourselves in a position where we have to convince our reluctant, calorie-hungry hunter-gatherer brains to waste energy for no obvious reason. Perhaps finding tactics to link training to purpose. it can help people’s motivation to exercise and exercise-related well-being, Raichlen says: “This is a really interesting speculation that deserves to be explored. “
Donaghy is already convinced. “I truly believe that running for a cause changes your mindset,” she says. “Yes, you could do it by entering a marathon and raising money for a charity, but there’s something quite special about handing over food that’s going to someone in your community who really needs it.”