AUBURN - Across the globe, hunger is a problem that far too many face daily.

It's a problem that may be easy to overlook and disregard.

But right here in Auburn and Cayuga County, it is estimated that one in three children go to bed hungry each night and that more than 55,284 people receive assistance from the 15 food pantries throughout the county.

To draw attention to these facts, a statewide hunger awareness day was declared.

For the past five years, the Healing Room kitchen at the First Love Ministries on Wall Street has served as the meeting place for the Hunger Awareness Day Soup Supper.

“It used to be in March,” said Sue Norton, chairperson for the food providers network. “But it was still too cold so we didn't get too many people out. So we decided to move it to June to hopefully get more people out.

“That first year we had maybe 30 or 40 people, but it has grown each year since then,” she said, explaining there were more than 200 people expected by the end of the night's event.

Norton said many local businesses and restaurants have avidly supported of the supper.

“It is a lot of making calls and talking to people,” Norton said. “But everything we have here is donated by stores and restaurants in the area and everyone here is a volunteer, helping to warm things up and do the serving. We have a very generous community.”

The day of awareness serves several purposes. First and foremost, it aims to make others realize that hunger is a problem not just in far-off places.

“It isn't something you can see,” Norton said. “It isn't like if you have a neighbor who is sick, you can see that, or if someone is homeless you can see that, but you can't always see that someone is hungry and going to bed hungry. A lot of people think ‘well I'm OK, so everyone else must be,' but that isn't always the case and that is our main goal ... to make more people see that hunger is a real problem.”

Tied directly into that concept, is the importance of food pantries and soup kitchens and food programs in the county.

“I think there is an idea that people are only hungry at Thanksgiving or Christmas,” Norton said. “But this is something that is going on all the time. There are children that the only hot meals they get are breakfast and lunch at school and in the summer there are lunch programs but they are often out of the way and places people can't get to. The food pantries and soup kitchens in the city and county are always extremely busy and we are lucky to be able to do what we can because the people of this community are so very generous.”

Attendees were asked to bring canned or dried food items to donate to the county's food pantries, a cause many were more than happy to support.

“This is something we can all do our part to help support,” Patricia Frazier said. “Even a small donation, a can of soup or something like that can really make a big difference to someone else out there.”

Norton said that with the increased price of gas and food, it is getting harder for families to make ends meet and to stretch their food dollars.

“Everything is going up in price,” Norton said. “But unfortunately pay checks are stagnating; this is also something we are trying to draw attention to.”

This fact has caught the attention of Auburn Mayor Timothy Lattimore and the city council, who presented a proclamation making June 5, 2007 a citywide day of hunger awareness, praising the hard work of all the food pantries and soup kitchens and those that volunteer their time throughout the city.

“This is in praise of all the people that work so hard for the betterment of our society,” Lattimore said. “They do a lot of great work. This (the impact of low wages and lack of jobs) is something that we are all aware of. We are working to draw new jobs here and we are doing what we can to turn this around and make it better.”