Health & Fitness
Southern Hills CROP Hunger Walk, September 30
The 30th annual Southern Hills CROP Hunger walk is Sunday, September 30. Have you participated in a CROP Walk? Are you walking this year, or sponsoring a walker? We'd love to hear about it!
Many of us don’t have to wonder if we will find food for our next meal. When we need water, we just turn on the tap. But for many of our neighbors, both here and around the world, hunger is a fact of life and finding clean drinking water is a daily struggle. Did you know that hungry people in developing countries typically walk as much as six miles a day to get food, water and fuel, and to take their goods to market?
The CROP Hunger Walk is intended to raise awareness of this struggle for existence and to illustrate the lengths that many people the world over must go to have water for drinking, cooking, and bathing.
The Southern Hills CROP Walk is an annual community hunger education and fundraising event sponsored by Church World Service, an international ecumenical relief, development and refugee resettlement agency providing assistance in the United States and around the world. This is the 30th year for the walk in Brecksville. The CROP Walk’s aim is to help end hunger - one step at a time.
The walk will be held at the Brecksville Train Station, on Sunday, September 30 with registration at 12:30 pm and the walk stepping off at 1 pm. Participants will take a two mile trek through the park.
Twenty-five percent of all funds raised during the walk stays in the area, benefiting the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, which operates over 100 pantries and hot meal programs throughout Cuyahoga County. Learn more about their work at www.hungernetwork.org. The remaining 75% will support the hunger initiatives of Church World Service.
Members of the 2012 CROP Hunger Walk planning committee include representatives from Brecksville United Methodist Church, Christ the Redeemer Lutheran in Brecksville, The Brecksville United Church of Christ, St. Joseph Byzantine, Triune Lutheran, and Independence Presbyterian Church.
Want to join the walk? Visit www.cropwalkonline.org/brecksvilleoh to learn more!
CROP History
Church World Service was founded in 1946 and the first CROP Walk was held a year later. Originally, CROP was an acronym for Christian Rural Overseas Program, and its focus was to help US farmers share grain with the hungry in post-World War II Europe and Asia. Today, CROP has a broader focus and uses a new acronym, Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.
Church World Service works to eradicate hunger and poverty and to promote peace and justice around the world. Globally it supports sustainable grassroots development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance, offering education and advocacy on hunger-related issues. In the United States, it helps communities respond to disasters, resettles refugees, promotes fair national and international policies, and provides educational resources.
The first Southern Hills CROP Walk was held in 1981. Have you participated in a CROP Walk? We'd love to hear about it. Add your comments below!