SOUTH DEERFIELD — The streets of downtown will be filled with volunteers walking to stamp out hunger later this month.
On Oct. 16, the Holy Name of Jesus Church on Thayer Street will host this year’s CROP Hunger Walk.
“This is a bunch of organizations, mostly churches, raising money to be sent around the world and to come back to Franklin County to feed the hungry,” said Steve Damon, who has coordinated the event in Franklin County for about five years and participated in walks since the early ‘90s. “We walk, we raise money, we ask our friends to donate.”
Damon said he’s on the staff of the United Church of Bernardston, where the first Franklin County hunger walk took place in 1987.
According to the national organization’s website, which was organized in 1947 and stands for Christian Rural Overseas Program, “CROP Hunger Walks are interfaith hunger education and fundraising events sponsored by Church World Service.” Nationally, there are 1,100 walks held every year with 114,000 participants, raising $11.25 million.
Damon said that 25 percent of the money raised is donated to the Western Mass. Food Bank, community meals programs at the Second Congregational Church in Greenfield and Trinity Church in Shelburne Falls, Ashfield’s Food Pantry, and Turners Falls Survival Center. The CROP Hunger Walk website relates that the other 75 percent helps “support the overall ministry of Church World Service, especially grassroots, hunger-fighting development efforts around the world.”
“Last year we raised just over $30,000,” Damon said about the regional walk, adding, “We’ll usually have about $22,000 or $24,000 pledged” by walk-time. He said the organization continues to accept money after.
Registration for the walk is at 1 p.m., followed by step-off at 2 p.m. Damon said the walk this year “comes out to about four miles” and takes about an hour and a half. There’s also a shorter, two-mile walk mapped out. After, Damon usually has cider, doughnuts, apples from Clarksdale Fruit Farm, and there might be live music. For registration, information or to donate, Damon asked that people send all inquires via email to: damons_of_gill@yahoo.com.
“My wife is a trumpet player,” Damon added, “and she usually starts us off with a bugle call charge, if nothing else.”
You can reach Andy Castillo
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