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Interfaith CROP walk set for April 21

Hundreds of Sonoma Valley residents will take to the streets on Sunday, April 21, in Sonoma’s fourth annual CROP Hunger Walk.

Each year, under the auspices of Church World Service (CWS), hundreds of CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) Walks are held throughout the U.S. to raise awareness about global poverty and money to end it. Sonoma’s Walk is one of 11 to be held that weekend throughout the Bay Area involving over 4,000 people.

This year’s Sonoma Walk is making a special effort to involve local youth in helping to raise awareness about global hunger. Students from St. Francis Solano School, Sonoma Valley High School’s AVID group and several church youth groups are expected to join in.

Seventy-five percent of the funds raised each year by CROP Walks support the work of CWS which has programs in 80 countries around the world providing famine relief, supporting sustainable, self-help development projects (digging wells, providing tools and seeds and the like), meeting emergency needs in the wake of natural disasters and aiding refugees. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised this year will remain in the Sonoma Valley to support the work of the Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS – the Haven) and Meals on Wheels Sonoma.

Since 1969, CROP Walks have grown in scope and impact yearly. Last year more than 1,500 communities across the country held hunger walks and raised more than $15 million to fight poverty – globally and locally.

Sonoma’s fourth annual CROP Hunger Walk is sponsored by a local interfaith group in cooperation with CWS. For more information, visit the CROP Walk website at BayAreaHungerWalk.org and click on Sonoma, or call Rich Hacker, chair of the planning committee, at 326-4742.