By Associated Press, 5/4/03

TRAFFIC UPDATES The Walk for Hunger has closed some roads downtown and out to Cambridge, including parts of Beacon Street, Commonwealth Avenue, and Charles Street. Boston and Cambridge roads Charles River roads All traffic updates

BOSTON -- Sunny skies and spring breezes greeted some 42,000 people who walked 20 miles through Boston and its suburbs Sunday to raise money to fight hunger in Massachusetts.

The participants in the 35th Walk for Hunger raised about $3 million for nearly 400 food pantries, soup kitchens and food banks across the state, event organizers said.

Ellen Parker, executive direct of Project Bread, the organization which organizes the pledge walk, said budget cutbacks make the walk's proceeds more important than ever.

"It's great that our supporters have once again made the Walk for Hunger an enduring and predicable ally for those needing emergency food," she said.

Walker began at the Boston Common, headed down Beacon Street to Newton, and returned via Cambridge to the Common.

Event organizers said demand for food aid continues to rise in the state, with 81 percent of emergency food providers funded by the walk reporting higher demand this year.