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Santas will be descending on Asbury Park en masse Saturday for the inaugural Santa Run.

Organized by Brooklyn based event management company Peak Projects in support of Red Bank based food support nonprofit Lunch Break, the 5k run/walk will set off and end in Bradley Park at Kingsley Street and Fifth Avenue.

Co founded by Jersey Shore native Joey Garafalo, Peak Projects is behind this year’s sold out Run the Hook event [at right].

For the Santa Run, Peak Projects asked participants to raise a minimum of $300 in support of reaching their $100,000 goal.

Below is the Sun’s interview with Garafalo and Lunch Break’s Kate McCann:

Sun: I hear both you and Dara are Jersey Shore natives, where are you from.

Garafalo: I was born and raised in Tinton Falls and Dara is from Keyport.

Sun: When did you start Project Peaks?

Garafalo: We started the company just over a year ago. Our first Jersey project was Run the Hook in Sandy Hook. We partnered with Clean Ocean Action for that event, which drew 1100 participants. We just held The Brew Hop in Brooklyn in support of City Harvest, a food rescue mission.

Sun: I see that your events are all tied to a charity.

Garafalo: We find that people respond better when a charity and event are in line with each other. Most importantly, we think that if you give people an opportunity to be involved with these charities and make it fun, it’s just more effective for everybody and it’s a great way to reach more people.

Sun: For this event, I hear you will be distributing Santa suits to all the participants.

Garafalo: Yes, it’s a good way to make the race festive and get everyone in the holiday season of giving. We want this to be a fun, all inclusive, community event that will get people to contribute to a good cause.

Sun: How many participants to you hope to draw for this event?

Garafalo: Our target is 1,000 but if we go over that, that’s great.

Sun: What is the course?

Garafalo: It’s a two lap course that starts in Bradley Park and heads west on Fifth, South on Grand, East on Cookman, then up the boardwalk. We finish in Bradley Park.

Sun: How did you come to choose Lunch Break for this event?

Garafalo: I grew up in the area so I’ve known about their work for along time now, and locationally each charity has made sense.

Sun: Kate, can you speak a little bit about Lunch Break’s history and programs.

McCann: Sure. Lunch Break is 33 year’s old. We are the largest, most accessible support agency in the area. We have a wide range of social services. We run a soup kitchen, food pantry, clothing boutique, a Suited for Success mentorship program for men and women.

The largest line item in our annual budget is the purchase of food. service 155,000 times — joey long time supporters of lunch break joe and john very entrenched in  community —

Sun: Lunch Break is based in Red Bank, why choose Asbury Park for this event?

McCann: A great deal of clientele comes from the Asbury Park area so it just fit to not only spread awareness of our services and what we do but to show how broad our client base is.  While 12 percent of our clients comes from Red Bank, we serve clients from all over Monmouth County and as far as Southern Ocean County.

Sun: Why hold the event at this time of year?

McCann: The timing is just perfect for us. The funds raised will insure we never have to turn anyone away. This is our most hectic and busiest time of year with food distribution.

Sun: Do your distribution numbers trend with what his happening with our economy?

McCann: Our everyday demand increases in all aspects of our programs and services for numerous reasons. If people aren’t getting the jobs they want so they aren’t getting the salaries they want. A large number of people are one flat tire and tow away from financial devastation. Renting in New Jersey for the average family of four is at a rate of $1,400 a month plus utilities. The majority of our clients have jobs, mostly at minimum wage. Some are holding down three full time jobs to meet that. They are the guy washing your car, pumping your gas, servicing your lawn, the cashier’s you see everyday. We have seniors who are living on a fixed income, college kids and graduates. At the end of the month they all have hard choices to make.  We tell them, take care of the important things like paying rent, getting your prescription filled and we’ll help you with the rest.

For more information about the Santa Run, visit apsantarun.com, and for more on Lunch Break, visit lunchbreak.org.

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The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

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