5K For the Montauk Food Pantry - Around Fort Pond

On Sunday September 15th, Montauk
residents Leyla Marchetto and Sheila Rooney, together with the help of Maureen
Rutkowski and Montauk Youth, are hosting the second annual 5K around Fort Pond
to benefit the Montauk Food Pantry. Registration  for this year’s event will open at 7:30am
(rain or shine) with a start time of 8:30am, at the Gazebo on the Green in
downtown Montauk. Adults and children of all ages are welcome, as are strollers,
scooters and leashed dogs. Suggested participation donations are $20 for adults
and $10 for children under 12. The organizers will also be accepting
non-perishable food item donations for the food pantry during the event. Participants are welcome to run, walk, jog, stroll, or scooter around the pond. Prizes
will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
finishers, and there will also be a door prize for one lucky participant. 

The Montauk Food Pantry was started over 25 years ago by Fran
Ecker and Ines Fox, then co-workers at the Montauk School. Ecker had noticed an
increase in children coming to school without breakfast or lunch, which brought
her to take action. She added that Montauk's poor, comprised largely of Latino
immigrant families, often have trouble finding transportation to a weekly food
pantry in East Hampton. The Montauk food pantry is a not-for-profit entity,
allowing the organization that Ecker started as a "small, community
thing" to receive state funding and grant monies.