We wanted to thank everyone who was involved with this year’s Interfaith Fast-a-Thon and Banquet—administrators, students, Middletown residents and faculty. This event exceeded all of our expectations, as 800 students and a number of Middletown residents donated a total of $11,246.58 to Amazing Grace Food Pantry!
Secondly, we wanted to address a rumor that circulated about the Interfaith Fast-a-Thon: that only 40 percent of the money raised will actually go to Amazing Grace. Absolutely all of the $11,246.58 raised will go to Amazing Grace.
The misunderstanding involved the makeup of the meal donations. When a meal is bought at Usdan, 40 percent of the cost is spent on food and 60 percent is spent on overhead such as facility cost and workers’ salaries. If you donated meals, it is this cost of the FOOD for the meal (40 percent or $3.03) that was donated to Amazing Grace; this $3.03 per meal is what we included in calculating our total of $11,246.58.
It would have been unethical to donate more than $3.03 per meal, because doing so would have infringed upon Usdan workers’ salaries. The $3.03 per meal, in addition to ALL of the point donations, went into a Weshop account from which Amazing Grace can purchase WITH NO MARK-UP. Bon Appétit was incredibly generous in allowing us to work out this deal.
A huge thanks to Bon Appétit and to everyone who organized, fasted, and/or donated their time and money; we couldn’t have done it without you!
-The Interfaith Justice League
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