Moorestown CROP Walk Set For May 6

MOORESTOWN, NJ — The 2018 edition of the Moorestown CROP Walk is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 6, beginning at Saint Matthew’s Lutheran Church, located at 318 Chester Avenue in Moorestown. Same-day registration begins at 12:15 p.m., with walkers scheduled to leave the church at 1 p.m.

The five-mile scenic course (or optional 3-mile and 1-mile routes for individuals who prefer a shorter course) which the walkers will follow through Moorestown is meant to symbolize the reality faced by so many people in the world who must walk many miles each day to obtain food and clean drinking water.

Water and bathroom facilities will be available at checkpoints along the walk, and there will be refreshments for the walkers when they return to St. Matthew’s Church. Locally, this annual event has been held in Moorestown for more than four decades. The walk solicits donations to fight hunger both globally and locally.

Money raised by participants through per-mile pledges as well as contributions from the public support programs of Church World Service, a joint Christian ministry organization of 37 different denominations, as well as the work of three local church-based food pantries in Moorestown that combat hunger in the community. Since 1974, the Moorestown event has raised approximately $600,000.

Overall, well over 2,000 communities across the United States join in more than 1,600 CROP Hunger Walks each year. More than five million CROP Hunger Walkers have participated in more than 36,000 CROP Hunger Walks in the last two decades alone. The needs of the poor and hungry around the world and in our midst are now more critical than ever.

In addition to providing emergency food supplies and hunger relief, CROP Walk funds also pay for resources that help enable people to meet their own needs, includng things like seeds, agricultural tools, wells and water systems, technical training, and micro-enterprise loans.

Residents of the greater Moorestown community can support this year’s CROP Walk in a variety of ways. They can sign up as walkers by contacting an individual church coordinator in one of the sponsoring Moorestown congregations and organizations: Trinity Episcopal, First United Methodist, First Baptist, First Presbyterian, St. Matthew’s Lutheran, Bethel A.M.E, Friends Meeting, and the Moorestown Jewish Association.

If they cannot walk, they can pledge tax-deductible donations to one of the walkers. They can also visit the 2018 Moorestown CROP Walk’s website to register as a walker, make an online donation, or find out about other ways to get involved in supporting the event.

For further information, contact event coordinator Mae Trebing from Saint Matthew’s Lutheran Church at ironhorse2102@gmail.com or 609-239-4942.

Under the theme “Ending Hunger One Step at a Time,” the event supports the Scriptural message, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty…and did not take care of you?” (Matthew 25:44).

Patch file photo