2007 Leelanau County CROP Walk

The 2007 Leelanau County CROP Walk will be held this Sunday (Sep 23) at 2 PM at the Omena Presbyterian Church.

The CROP Walk (CROP: Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) supports many causes around the world. 25% of all the proceeds raised at the walk come back to help procure food for the Leelanau Christian Neighbors Food Pantry, with the rest supporting both domestic and international poverty-reducing efforts.

“It still surprises some Americans that there are people here in the richest nation in the world who go to bed hungry because they cannot afford to buy food,” says Rev. John L. McCullough, executive director and CEO of Church World Service. “These local CROP Hunger Walks, organized by individuals and faith communities in cities and towns all across the U.S., raise awareness about hunger and give people a way to help both in their own communities and around the world.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture report “Household Food Security in the United States, 2005,” 11 percent of U.S. homes did not have access “to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members” at least some time during the year.

In what has become an annual tradition in the thousands of communities that participate, an interfaith, multi-cultural collection of CROP walkers encourage friends, neighbors, colleagues, merchants and places of worship to donate dollars to support their participation in walks of up to 10 km. Participants, many with readily identifiable red and white signs, range in age from babies in strollers to seniors–and even the occasional jogger.