By By CHRISTINA HALE,Staff Writer
About 200 volunteers participated in a walk to end hunger Sunday afternoon in Washington. The Crop Hunger Walk raised money for the hungry, both in Beaufort County and worldwide.
Beth Anne Stork of Stocks walked with her husband, Kurt, and three children: Allen, 8, Karl, 4, and Glenn, 3.
This was the Storks first Crop Hunger Walk in Beaufort County. “I grew up doing Crop Walks in New Jersey,” Beth Anne Stork said.
Walk Organizer Christy Walcott said the money raised will give “worldwide hunger and refugee relief.”
The goal was to raise $10,000. Eagle’s Wings in Washington will receive 25 percent of the funds. The remaining 75 percent will go to the Church World Service for international hunger relief projects.
The Church of World Service, a relief, development and refugee assistance ministry in the U.S., promotes Crop Hunger Walks across the country, according to its Web site. Crop stands for: Communities, Responding to, Overcome, Poverty.
Currently, 840 million people are undernourished — nearly three quarters of them living in rural farming communities, according to Crop Walk literature.
The First Christian Church in Washington, of which Walcott is a member, planned Sunday’s walk. “It was open to the public and requested area churches to participate,” she said.
The Storks, who are members of First Presbyterian Church in Washington, collected donations from “friends, family and co-workers of $10 on up to $120,” Beth Anne Stork said.
The route was about three miles. Walcott told volunteers only to walk “as far as you feel comfortable.”
Debbie Adams, executive director of Eagle’s Wings in Washington, told walkers to remember the cause. “As you walk, know you are helping the people in Beaufort County and the rest of the world.”