Faith groups join together for Crop Walk fund-raiser

Published 11:00 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – A parade of people who care could be seen taking to the streets of Snoqualmie on Saturday morning.

That group of 38 folks (and a few dogs) from around the Valley came out for the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church’s second annual “Crop Walk.”

Participants of all ages raised money for the walk by finding sponsors. The Crop Walk will benefit both local and foreign food banks through Church World Service. This year, more than $2,800 was raised.

Church World Service is an ecumenical organization that started in the 1940s as a cooperative humanitarian ministry working across the globe to provide everything from disaster relief to food for the hungry. It currently has hundreds of programs in more than 80 countries.

“They also work with refugees on everything from initial help to permanently settling them, the whole process, hunger and development work – you name it. It’s a very broad-based humanitarian organization,” said Leonard Eiger, coordinator of the social justice ministry at Snoqualmie United Methodist Church.

The first Crop Walk started in the 1960s in the Midwest and has since grown to more than 2,000 Crop Walks throughout the country.

“Someone came up with the idea to have a walk to raise money to stop hunger; that was the humble beginning of Crop Walk,” said Eiger.

Church World Service uses 75 percent of the proceeds from each Crop Walk for its international hungry relief ministries and allows each church to earmark up to 25 percent to go to a local community food bank. This year, Mount Si Helping Hands Food Bank will be the local recipient.

“It just doesn’t all go out to some organization someplace. Some stays close to home to help fight hunger,” Eiger said.

And the walk is easy – only four miles through the historical streets of Snoqualmie. There’s also the “Miracle Mile” walk for those who aren’t up to four miles.

“There are people from our church who walk as well as people from outside of our church, and also those not in a faith community,” Eiger said.

This year the route started at the church at River Street and Railroad Avenue and continued down Railroad Avenue to Meadowbrook, circled around the high school and down through town all the way to Snoqualmie Parkway and, finally, back to the church. A hotdog feed rewarded the walkers afterward.

“Besides raising money, the other thing for me is the awareness-raising, too,” Eiger said. “We try to give money to the food banks, but we also need to do something about the root cause [of hunger]. By getting out and walking, people see us and we hand out flyers and say this is what we can do.”

The Valley is not without its share of hunger, Eiger said.

“When I drop things off at the food bank, it’s evident from the number of people who are there to pick up. I think 35 million have food insecurity in our country. No community is untouched.”

“It’s a two-stage approach through feeding now and trying to make it so people don’t have to stand in line at the food bank. You can’t have one without the other is the way I look at it as a social justice advocate.”

* To learn more about Church World Service, visit www.churchworldservice.org.

Staff Writer Melissa Kruse can be reached at (425) 888-2311 or by e-mail at melissa.kruse@valleyrecord.com.