Walk in the Cold 5K will raise awareness for hungry and homeless

IDAHO FALLS — A nonprofit organization is raising awareness for the hungry and homeless in the east Idaho community by walking in the cold.

The “Walk in the Cold 5K” event run by the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission, will happen on April 2 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Idaho Falls greenbelt. The path will loop the greenbelt. The start and finish line will be near the veterans memorial.

“I would just encourage people to come and have fun!” said Olivia Stauffer, community relations manager for the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission.

Stauffer said the 5K started in 2019. It was supposed to be annual, but it’s only happened once due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the organization is coming back with the event and Stauffer said she is excited. They have planned to raffle off a side-by-side. Click here to learn more.

“While there are some fun things going on, we are also going to incorporate how we work together with our community partners, such as the Idaho Falls Police Department, local law enforcement chaplains association. We are also trying to get the police chief there,” said Stauffer. “Just because a lot of the times when people are on their homelessness journey, these individuals and organizations are a huge part of that journey.”

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Stauffer said the goal this year is to raise $30,000 from the 5K. Registration for the event is $25. Click here to learn more. Funds raised from the event will help keep the men’s and women’s homeless shelters open, along with keeping the evening community meals and other services running.

Stauffer told EastIdahoNews.com the organization is focused on having the community learn more about the issue because it is not very apparent.

“One thing that I hear a lot from people is, ‘Oh, I didn’t know we had a homeless shelter,’ and along with that is, ‘Oh, I don’t see homelessness issues here. I don’t see them on the sidewalks.’ That’s one thing we want to address is right now — that we do have kind of a handle on things, but with the way that our area is expanding so rapidly, if we are not proactive, we are going to have to be reactive about it, and usually, you can’t get those issues under control,” she said. “So to bring awareness to it now … so we don’t have tents going on all over the city, it’s not going to be scary to walk down the road, but kind of why we need that awareness so that people can actually get involved now rather than later.”

The Idaho Falls Rescue Mission was established in 1998 and has been serving the Idaho Falls area for 24 years. In 2021, the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission helped distribute over 26,000 hot meals and provided over 11,000 safe nights of sleep. The mission has two homeless shelters, the City of Refuge which is a men’s shelter, and Ruth House, which is a women and children’s shelter.