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Boxer Winky Wright Knocks Out Hunger

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Junior Middleweight Champion Winky Wright poses for promotional photos at the Sweetbay Supermarket at 10th Avenue and Columbus Drive.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 22, 2008

Tampa - Professional boxer Winky Wright ducked under the ropes of a boxing ring outside a Sweetbay supermarket today to discuss a daunting opponent for many families: hunger.

"You hate to see anybody go without food, especially kids," said Wright, 36, of St. Petersburg. "In America, the land of opportunity, we all should have enough to eat."

Wright visited Sweetbay's newest store at 5050 E. 10th Ave. for the launch of the supermarket's annual hunger-relief campaign, this year called "Box Out Hunger." The kickoff also included sparring amateurs from the Hurricane Boxing Gym, 3715 E. Seventh Ave., drawing a crowd of about 40 people.

About 10 percent of local households – roughly 40,000 families – wonder during the year where their next meal is coming from, said Marc Sutherland, director of America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay.

The food bank partners with about 350 charitable agencies and distributed 14 million pounds of food last year, Sutherland said. About 25 percent of it clients are younger than 18 and 20 percent are elderly.

"People have to make a decision between buying their prescriptions or buying food," Sutherland said, standing ringside.

The Sweetbay chain donated 1.5 million pounds of food to food banks last year, company spokeswoman Nicole LeBeau said. The hunger-relief effort, now in its fourth year, is its largest contribution to that.

From now until Dec. 31, Sweetbay shoppers can purchase $7 or $15 boxes representing nonperishable foods such as peanut butter, rice, canned fruit and vegetables, pasta and oatmeal. Each box allots those items to pallets to be delivered to America's Second Harvest in bulk for easy distribution, LeBeau said.

"It's very convenient for a shopper," Sutherland said. "They don't have to go out of their way."

About a dozen boxes were sold during today's two-hour demonstration. Wright, a former light middleweight champion, has a Dec. 4 fight in Seattle and didn't join the sparring. But his presence was a hit with the young boxers and passers-by, who asked him for pictures and autographs.

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