Martin Luther King, III Supports NYCCAH's Serve-a-Thon

To view MLK III's letter of support in PDF format, please click here.

January 8, 2010

Mr. Joel Berg
Executive Director
NYC Coalition Against Hunger
16 Beaver Street New York, NY 10004-2391

Dear Mr. Berg:

I am writing today to offer my deepest support for the upcoming ‘Seventh Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Serve-a-Thon’. Every year since 2004, the NYC Coalition Against Hunger has honored my father’s legacy by inspiring average citizens to serve. Because of your efforts, men and women from all walks of life commemorate my father’s birthday in New York’s food pantries and soup kitchens, providing much needed help for the city’s neediest citizens.

In recent years the King Day of Service has become a mainstay of American culture, but it is efforts like this that remind us of the day’s true meaning. When my father said that “everybody can be great because anybody can serve,” he didn’t necessarily mean that service was an enriching end in and of itself. He believed that service is a means to an end, one that we must use to confront our lingering social ills and pursue the betterment of humanity. He believed that service is how ordinary men and women must fight poverty, racism and militarism. He believed that service is how we reach the Beloved Community.

He once said that “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.” It’s efforts like the MLK Serve-a-Thon that honor this legacy. By bringing New Yorkers together against hunger, you are shining a light on what King Day really means, improving the lives of those around you and paving the way for a more equitable world. Thank you for your work.

Sincerely,
Martin Luther King, III
Chief Executive Officer