Pasadena Area CROP Hunger Walk Aims to Mobilize Community in Global Fight Against Food Insecurity

Pasadena residents are uniting in the fight against hunger as they prepare to join the Pasadena Area CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, April 21 – an event organizers say is planned to showcase the power of communal action in addressing critical social issues.

The Pasadena Area CROP Hunger Walk will bring together residents of Pasadena and neighboring areas around St. Elizabeth Parish School in Altadena. There, they will rally to combat food insecurity, both locally and globally. The timing of this walk, just ahead of Earth Day, underscores a dual commitment to addressing humanitarian crises and promoting sustainability.

In the U.S., CROP Hunger Walks are held on the Sunday before Earth Day. This year, Earth Day is Monday, April 22.

“The walk itself began in 1969, so it’s been over 50 years now,” David Kristoff, coordinator of the Pasadena Area Crop Hunger Walk, said. “It’s actually been part of Pasadena’s annual history for over about 45 years.”

In Pasadena, the Walk has long been coordinated by a group led by Betty Cole, a member of All Saints Episcopal Parish. Kristoff said the group started the annual walk for social justice, which aims to raise funds for local charities that help people who are food-insecure. At least 25% of the funds go to local organizations, one of them the Giving Bank at Holy Family Church in South Pasadena.

Other organizations that the annual Walk has been helping include the ACTS (Altadena Congregations Together Serving) in Altadena, the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Philip the Apostle Church, the Foothill Unity Center in Pasadena and Monrovia, and Friends in Deed.

Kristoff said this is his third year coordinating the walk, and even with many different organizations working to gather funds to help feed the hungry and people being able choose who to support, the need is still so great nationally and globally.

“We’re confident that this is a really important community builder in Pasadena, because the idea is that we bring people together from all different faith traditions and organizations, including schools and churches and synagogues, and anyone who really believes that ending world hunger is a priority for us.”

CROP Hunger Walks, organized by Church World Service, started in North Dakota in 1969. The first one to be officially named a CROP Hunger Walk occurred in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1970.

The term “CROP” originally stood for the Christian Rural Overseas Program whose primary mission was to help Midwest farm families share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia. Today, the program has outgrown the acronym but retains it as the historic name. The Walk has also spread to over 2,000 communities across the U.S., with over 1,300 CROP Hunger Walks happening every year.

Kristoff said the Walk may have been started by a religious organization, but since then, it has become more of a community effort, and anyone can participate and donate to help the hungry.

“Even those who aren’t religiously affiliated, we invite them to join and reach out and help,” he said. “Feeding each other is an important human social need, and in all of the major religions, caring for your neighbor, near and far, is an important part of what we’re about. So everyone’s welcome. You don’t have to belong to any particular group to be part of it.”

This year’s Pasadena Area CROP Hunger Walk aims to raise up to $30,000 to support vital initiatives. Every dollar will help to make a difference in the lives of people who are struggling with food insecurity, Kristoff said.

To register for the CROP Hunger Walk, visit https://events.crophungerwalk.org/cropwalks/event/pasadenaca. Instructions on how to make a donation if you can’t make it to the Walk on Sunday is also available on the page.

For more information, call David J. Kristoff at (626) 437-8797 or email dkristoff626@gmail.com.