Regardless of critical subject, organizer of CROP Walk attempt to embody enjoyable | News, Sports activities, Jobs

Although the CROP Walk for Hunger focuses on a critical issue-feeding the hungry-that doesn’t imply members can’t have enjoyable whereas they’re transferring alongside the route. With this yr’s theme of “Chickens, Beans & Big Dreams,” there’s the chance a rooster or two, both of the fowl species or a human in a rooster swimsuit may very well be strutting alongside the Riverwalk on Oct. 12.

“I’ll be walking in a chicken costume,” Tammey Aichner, govt director of the United Churches of Lycoming County, shared not too long ago.

“A couple of years ago, the theme was, I think like, be the change, so we had, we had the beekeepers from Trinity Episcopal Church there, and we gave everyone little jars of honey. And our rise up village bakery made these delicious honey cookies that we gave to everybody,” she mentioned.

“We try to do something. So we’re going to have a couple live chickens there, and I was promised that they were well behaved, and I’m going to be walking in a chicken costume. We’ll probably be playing the chicken dance at the registration table or something like that. Yeah, Penn State Extension has agreed to come and talk about like, the importance and benefit of canning and preserving,” she mentioned.

In the midst of getting enjoyable, through the years, through the years Aichner estimates that the walkers and their sponsors have raised properly over 1,000,000 {dollars} for starvation efforts domestically and globally.

This yr’s stroll begins at 1 p.m. and since members select how far they stroll, there’s not ending time. The start line is at St. Mark’s Church,142 Market St.

“Everyone (has) the option of walking the three miles, which is a loop, or you could do it twice if you wanted six miles,” she mentioned.

“We invite all the churches, but not all of the churches actively participate. Some churches participate at a much greater level than other churches. Some churches just have one walker, and then other churches might have their whole youth group come out,” Aichner mentioned.

Aichner joked that the variety of walkers will depend on what time the Eagles sport is scheduled. On the typical about 50 folks take part. They in flip get folks to sponsor them in an effort to elevate funds for the occasion.

“It goes towards feeding programs-75 percent of it goes to Church World Service to help with global hunger and 25 percent of it stays here in our community,” Aichner mentioned.

“We don’t keep that 25 percent with United Churches. We actually distribute it among the feeding programs. We’re one of the recipients, but then we also send it to one of the groups in Jersey Shore-this year,we chose the New Love Center in Jersey Shore. We’re doing the Son-Light House in Muncy, and we’ll alternate that with Footprints in Montgomery next year, and then the American Rescue Workers here locally. But we’ve also given to Sojourner Truth for their feeding program. We’ve given to the Salvation Army for their feeding program,” she defined.

And with the price of groceries rising, Aichner emphasised that the variety of folks needing assistance is rising.

“There’s tremendous need now…you know how expensive food is, how expensive it is just to create one meal for your family. I think ground beef, which used to be cheap when we were kids, is seven or $8 a pound,” she mentioned.

“There’s tremendous need. We rely a lot on donations. So maybe the Smith family didn’t need food two years ago, they were doing okay, and in fact, maybe the Smith family donated towards our food pantry. Well, now they don’t have the money to donate, because all of their extra is going towards their living expenses. Imagine the ones that are living on fixed incomes, where their income is not going up nearly as fast as the expenses that they’re incurring,” she added.

Aichner famous that the United Churches’ Food Pantry not too long ago moved to 520 West Fourth St., the place the Shepherd of the Streets is situated. Because of the 2 ministries in a single spot, folks can now get meals and hygiene and prescription wants all at one place. The quantity served has elevated.

“The numbers have elevated drastically. As , one of many greatest limitations that the inhabitants we serve face is transportation. So that doesn’t imply simply because our numbers are going up this month, it doesn’t imply the necessity wasn’t there final month. It signifies that a variety of these folks couldn’t get to the place we have been. They should make decisions of what they will entry. And now that we now have our ministries beneath one roof, it’s sort of like a one cease store.

To take part on this CROP Walk, people can with enroll at their church of if there church isn’t collaborating, they will get the supplies with on the web site: crophungerwalk.org or on the United Churches of Lycoming County workplace, situated at New Covenant United Church of Christ, 202 East Third St.