Organizers Gear Up For CROP Walk with Recruiter Rally

It’s more than a month away, but planning has begun for the third annual CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) Hunger Walk in Romeoville.

Organizers will host a recruiter rally for anyone thinking about starting their own hunger walk team at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31, at , 2 Belmont Drive in Romeoville.

Lea Anne Stoughton, a parishioner at , one of the organizing churches, said any business, organization or team is invited to send a representative to the Aug. 31 rally to learn more about CROP Hunger Walks, learn about projects funded by the walks and begin creating a team.

“It’s sort of like the March of Dimes,” Stoughton said. “There will be team leaders to recruit walkers for the team.”

At the Oct. 8 walk, participants can choose either a one-mile or three-mile route, both of which finish at Lake Strini in . Teams and walkers will collection donations to benefit the Good Shepherd Church Shepherd’s Pantry, along with Church World Service, an organization works to eradicate hunger and respond to emergencies throughout the world.

The food pantry, which recently moved into United Presbyterian Church, serves Romeoville-area residents and offers distribution from 1 to 3 p.m. every Saturday.

For the first time, the Romeoville CROP walk will benefit from an anonymous donor, according to Stoughton. The donor, who has asked not to be named, has agreed to chip in up to $500 to support the causes.

“For every team that signs up for the walk, we’ll get $50,” Stoughton said. “So if we get 10 teams, we get the full $500.” That money will be above and beyond the donations collected by teams and individual walkers, she noted.

For more about the Romeoville CROP Hunger Walk, click here, visit www.cropwalk.org or contact Teresa Linaweaver at Good Shepherd church at 815-886-4354.

For more on Church World Service and its projects, click here.