MIDDLEBURY — Sunday, Oct. 2, will mark the 39th year that Addison County volunteers will walk to raise money to fight hunger and poverty through the annual CROP Hunger Walk.
Last year, the Addison County walk raised just shy of $22,795, which was the top walk in Vermont and ranked in the top 5 percent nationwide in online contributions out of 1,000 walks.
CROP Hunger Walks are community-wide events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by local congregations or groups to raise funds to end hunger at home and around the world. Twenty-five percent of funds raised goes to local food shelves.
When CROP began in 1947, CROP was an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program. Its primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia.
Today, it has outgrown the acronym but retains the historic name of the program. Now CROP stands for Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.
Registration on the Middlebury town green begins at noon, and the walk starts at 1 p.m.
People of all ages and abilities are encouraged to walk. Participants from previous years have included families with strollers to those with canes and wheelchairs.
For more information, contact organizers Patty Hallam at 388-1561 and Ellen McKay at 443-5626.