CROP Hunger Walk set Saturday at DWU

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Area residents are invited to walk laps around the Dakota Wesleyan University campus this weekend as part of a fundraiser to fight hunger.

Organizer Ron Fuchs said the event, known as a CROP Hunger Walk, is his way of counteracting rampant cynicism driven by the economy and other bad news.

“I want my attitude and my response to be something more than cynical,” he said. “There’s no solution in that sort of attitude and thinking.”

The event begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. Participants will gather at the Farwell Church on the grounds of the Dakota Discovery Museum. The walking route will be around the DWU campus.

Walkers can raise pledges in advance, and pledge forms are available at the Mitchell First United Methodist Church. Alternatively, walkers can simply show up Saturday and make their own pledge.

CROP Hunger Walks help to support the overall ministry of Church World Service, especially grassroots, hunger-fighting development efforts around the world. In addition, each local CROP Hunger Walk can choose to return up to 25 percent of the funds it raises to hunger-fighting programs in its own community. Fuchs said some of the money raised by the Mitchell event will benefit the local food pantry.

The name “CROP” has its origins in 1947 when it was an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program. Its primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia. Today, the organization has outgrown the acronym but retains it as the historic name of the program. 

Fuchs said he’s expecting a big turnout, in part because the Universities Fighting World Hunger student group at DWU has already filled dozens of pledge sheets.

The local CROP Hunger Walk has been conducted in the past, though some years it was not held. Saturday’s event will be the second consecutive, Fuchs said.

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