Local Crop Walk Raises Thousands to Help Fight Hunger
On Sunday Oct. 20, Dutchess County hosted its 44th Dutchess Interfaith CROP Walk at the Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie to raise money to help end hunger.
The 2019 Dutchess Interfaith CROP Walk raised $16,160. All of the food and 25 percent of all proceeds will be used to help fight hunger locally.
Most of the local money goes back to Dutchess Outreach, the rest of the 25 percent goes to Beulah Baptist Soup Kitchen, Community Action Partnership and the Fishkill Food Bank. It’s all hunger related groups.
The walk was a six mile route through Poughkeepsie that started and ended in front of the Temple Beth-El. During the walk participants had three checkpoints in which they could grab a drink of water and use the bathroom facilities. The checkpoints were located at the Chris Episcopal Church, Unitarian Universalist and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran. Walkers had the options to either walk individually or in groups. Unlike traditional walks there wasn’t a predetermined start time. The event started at 10 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. After the event started participants could begin walking from then all the way up until around 2 p.m. so that they would have enough time to finish the walk. Next to the signup table there was another table set up by volunteers to sell baked goods.
CROP is an acronym for both Christian Rural Overseas Program and Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty. When the CROP Walk first started “its primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia,” as stated on the organization’s website. The CROP Walk has now grown to have a global impact.
The community event is sponsored locally by the Dutchess Interfaith Council and nationally by the Church World Service and is organized by religious groups, businesses, schools and others to raise funds to end hunger locally, nationally and around the world. None of the money goes towards any religious programs.
“The CROP Walk raises money for hunger relief projects but also emergency relief projects and development projects,” Miriam Zimet-Aaron, Dutchess County Crop Walk Volunteer said.
An example of an emergency relief would be if a tsunami or a hurricane hit an area. An example of a development project would if a village needed to build a well.
When it comes to the CROP Hunger Walk in the Dutchess County there is one name that stands apart from the rest and that is Mary Moody. Moody dedicated the last 43 years of her life to the CROP Hunger Walk. In 2017, Moody was the 6th largest fundraiser for the National CROP Walk nationwide, she fundraised $18,474. In 2018, Moody was ranked 4th in the country in fundraising, as she raised $26,00 alone. That year Dutchess County fundraised nearly $60,000. Even while she was in a hospice she would still write letters to friends and family asking them if they would donate to the CROP Hunger Walk. Mary’s husband, Ken, is still an avid supporter of the CROP Hunger Walk as he made an appearance on Sunday to greet many of the participants. “For many years, Ken and Mary Moody were the backbone for the crop walk. We’re trying to fill their shoes and it’s very hard to do so,” Zimet-Aaron said.
The CROP Hunger Walk first took place 50 years ago in 1969. The initial hunger walk related to CROP took place in Bismarck, N.D., on October 17, 1969. Officially the first CROP Hunger Walk was in York County, Penn. Since its inception, a half a century ago, more than 1,600 communities across the United States have joined more than 800 CROP Hunger Walks each year.
Rev. Arelene Wilhelm has been involved with the CROP Walk for 37 years. During that time she has spent the last 25 years as the treasurer. Wilhelm found out about the CROP Walk through a colleague in 1982 and was instantly hooked. “I’ve always had a heart for people who don’t have enough food,” Rev. Wilhelm said. The CROP Walk holds a special place in Rev. Wilhelm’s heart.“It’s more than just giving somebody a meal, it’s teaching them how to raise their own food, it’s putting in wells, putting in windmills. It’s teaching people skills that they need to survive,” she said.
The Department of Social Services was also on hand at the CROP Walk as they ran the bake sale. One of the people there was Deputy Commissioner, Theresa Giovanniello. Giovanniello explained the importance of nutrition and why just any food isn’t going to cut it for people in need over the long run. These people need nutrition and not just non perishables. “It’s hard to be healthy when your in a situation because the cheaper foods are the worst for you. You could go to the Dollar Store and buy food. But when you look at the ingredients it’s all fat, sugar and salt. You might gain weight but you’re not going to be healthy because you’re not getting real nutrition. The other thing if you look across the life span is people in poverty get more diseases and die younger. One of the main reasons is going to be what they have to eat and other thing would be is the stress,” Giovannielloso said.
There is one reason why Zimet-Aaron believes the CROP Hunger Walk is so successful . “People respond to the need for hunger relief. Very often someone donates money and doesn’t know where it goes but here [CROP Walk] a lot of our groups also donate their services to the Lunch Box,” she said.
On Sundays community groups volunteer at the Lunch Box. The volunteers help serve and pay for the food. The Lunch Box also serves a hot lunch every weekday. On Saturdays, Beulah Baptist soup kitchen serves a hot lunch as well.
There is a lot of diversity in the participants. Students from Spackenkill High School and Jon Jay High School are participating as well as local churches, synagogues and mosques. “It’s a real interfaith effort and community effort,” Zimet-Aaron said.
