Amid a light drizzle Sunday afternoon, the Tamaqua Community Hunger Walk departed the St. Luke's Medical Center on South Railroad Street after a one-week delay.

An ominous weather forecast bumped the walk back one week. Those participants able to reschedule made the most of their walk, which capped off a series of events making up Tamaqua Hunger Weekend."Having to reschedule, we had a smaller crowd than I think we would have if we were able to do it last Sunday, but we've had a really successful campaign nonetheless," said Paul Dodson, walk organizer.Area churches and businesses have been collecting food items for several weeks. Both the food and money raised will be evenly split between food pantries in Tamaqua at the Salvation Army, Trinity United Church of Christ and the Primitive Methodist Church."While the numbers aren't completely final, we've collected $3,000 and 75 boxes of food," Dodson said.An empty bowl dinner held last weekend, hosted by the Zion Culinary Crew, raised over $1,000 to benefit the walk.It is the second consecutive year the total monetary contributions have surpassed $3,000."That's quite a bit of money when you think about it," Dodson said, "and it goes to a very noble cause.""Last year, we raised $3,597 and collected 48 boxes of food so our food totals are way up this year and that's great to see."Sunday's walk departed from the St. Luke's parking lot, went out to the former Maff Motors property and back to the lot.Had the rain not held off, organizers had a contingency plan to hold the event in the YMCA gymnasium."We wanted to cover all of our bases, but we're really happy we're able to be outdoors, even under gray skies," Dodson said.Following the walk, Zion Lutheran hosted an ice cream fellowship time.