we'll tell you more about that part two but i would like to introduce my guests for this evening we have rebecca ball and she is the regional director and carole brandy berry she's our new regional director so we want to give her all the support we can so perhaps we could get started with you brick rebecca a little bit what is the history of crops and what does it stand for crop is a national humanitarian aid effort that benefit people globally not only in the united states but around the world the history crop this year is fifty one years old last year we celebrated that big five zero this year fifty one years old crop began following world war two when a group of midwestern farmers who out of their own faith and own commitment to following the call of god to feed the hungry witnessed the famine that was taking place in europe in asia that followed world war two and they wanted to do something about it they wanted to have some positive impact so they began to organize trains of grain and the trains would stop in one farming community and the farmers in that community would fill several of the cars with grain from their fields and then send the trains on down to the next farming community where they'd be filled with grain more cars would be filled with grain and eventually that grain was shipped to asia in europe and really helped mitigate some of the effects of the severe famine that was being experienced this happened in the united states and right midwestern farmers really wanted to out of their faith really wanted to respond to the needs of the world and so that's how crop began and crop originally stood for christian rural overseas program because it was christian farmers who from rural parts of the united states who responded to needs overseas now of course crop is so much broader than that it's really an ecumenical and interfaith effort and it's also no longer primarily rural it's very much urban suburban and rural with people of fa needs of the needs of hunger in over seventy four countries around the world so we still call it crop but we don't really call it the christian rural overseas program much anymore and then also isn't that they've changed their procedures a little bit more to instead of just food they show them how to grow crops and things like you have of teach them yes that's right we don't only send food and of course we don't have trains of grain any more crop fines that are used to provide food an emergency needs and also some training for people are raised primarily through community wide woks like what you have here in peter's township where people come on a sunday afternoon and walk in before the walk they collect money for the hungry bring that walk with the money with them the day of the walk in the money is used then to sometimes buy food sometimes to provide training so people can grow their own food sometimes to provide seed for people so that they maybe they're prepared to play it well carol perhaps you could tell us a little bit of something but we're going to do i'm going to say our own walk here peter's township is fourteen years old this year and not only do we collect money and walk for the hungry but we also have a little entry fee when you walk and that is a canned goods which we provide to two of the food pantries in the area to peter's township food pantry and the is bird food pantry so we we kind of double fisted try and help the hungry here and in our own walk last year we had over two hundred walkers we raised over two thousand dollars some of which goes to the food pantries it's a real community effort it involves all the churches in the area and a lot of people we have a board of directors but more than that we have a lot of good volunteers the ladies in the church bake cookies and man the center so that we have refreshments when we come back because we're all starving and thirsty but then but other than being a great ecumenical effort for the hungry it's also a real fellowship thing and ecumenical fellowship thing because you get to talking with your fellow walkers then we have little bets on which church is going to raise money and this year we're going to have a clown and we're going to be videotaped so it's really kind of an exciting thing i really have yes were you going to say something rubin to say carol really touched on something important about crop woks there are many things that we do as people of faith where we come together across the nomination aligns and sometimes across faith lines because we have walks where the muslim community walks in the behind community walks in the jewish community walks come together and we come together across economic lines quite often but we come together and then we look outside ourselves we look at the needs of our sisters and brothers not just across the street but around the world and that is really a way to pull a community together in ways that we don't very often do we don't do that many times you know another thing that occurs to me is why we walk at all and rebecca had pointed out to us at our meeting that we walk because they walk most of the hungry people in this world must walk to get food where we go to the grocery store and then put it in the kitchen and before long it becomes dinner they have to walk they have to remake a real effort to feed themselves so that's the idea of a walk we walk because they want they want you it's a very good thought when how many crosswalks are there united states and in the in the specially in pennsylvania there are over two money to care for the hungry nationally crosswalks raise about twenty two million dollars that goes to fighting the hungry at home and around the globe that's amazing in pennsylvania last year we in western pennsylvania alone we saw about a twenty percent increase in the money that was raised in crop walks and in the number of people who walk last year i think that's really important for two reasons one it means that less people went to bed that very practical more people were fed because of that and secondly i think that's a real statement of faith i think it's a statement of faith for the churches and the synagogues and the organizations that walk that says something about where their heart is and that their eyes and their hearts are open to the needs of their sisters and brothers so i'm really excited about that for crosswalk unexcited this area had a really wonderful carroll can talk about that a wonderful increase in participation last year we did we had quite a few people it's an easy way for you to help it we all wonder what can we personally do about world hunger this is just such an easy and fun small way that we can reach out and i think a lot of the fellow participants here in the area realize that when i grow know they come to meet one another and they can to greet each other and from different parts of well read around the community here than say oh i saw you last years and say we're back again we also have a great team of regulars we call them principally bob latimer who is our arrangements chairperson he just he gets everything ready for the past decade approximately and we owe him a great deal of thanks he's always there for us he's guiding us along making sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to do this a lot more behind the scenes to be done before the well gets sarah later and we'll have a wonderful treasure who's a very capable and she's doing a lot of advertising for us her name is mary jean neighbors and you of course trying to get us on the on this program and all that you do to contribute well and i enjoy doing it what i think we all do we all do we all do in that's what makes it so so nice and so very important that people just like ordinary people who mean we all participate and we try to do our best to help somebody  e ok now where does the money donated through crop well go or did we touch on that or not i don't think we did a little bit but i did david and some of the states here locally in the peters township  spoke food pantries the money that we raised helps the food pantries through the lean months in the summer when the collections and all or maybe not like they would like them to be giving christmas right we still have the hungry who go on and these funds help us to continue to see well i think we're doing fifty some families here and yes we have room for which is which is a lot of people it is i regularly have food pantries and meals on wheels programs tell me that there would be mind that they would not be able to provide the food that they provide wasn't for the money that came to them from their local crop walks in the summer giving often drops off to local food agencies christmas and thanksgiving people are tend to be a little bit more sensitive to the needs of the hungry and so those are months when they can count on having enough money in the summer people are talking about the needs of the hungry in their community so the crop walks really cover those bases those those lean months for many different communities will our crop works usually held in the fall then is that when they usually are  they have them home all year round in other places in pennsylvania probably ninety percent of our crop walks take place from the last week of september and till the last week of october and then the other ten percent takes place in next what are some of the hot spots in the world today where crop walk money is making a difference and what do you mean by hotspots hotspots i would say are places where there is a great need right now where hunger and poverty are being acutely felt and how church or how crosswalk funds really help to benefit that that i would say in the united states we have a survey was done of the college of mayors at the beginning of one nine hundred ninety eight asking them about the needs of their hungry in their cities for one thousand nine hundred seven and they reported a sixteen percent increase in request from food pantries in one nine hundred ninety seven when they were asked if they thought that would continue for nineteen ninety eight they their assumption was that the need would not only that it would grow at least at a sixteen percent increase so i would consider one of the hot spots would be some of the urban areas of this country where hunger is really being experienced in greater numbers than on a global level one of the ways to crack walk funds fight hunger is in situations of disaster so for instance in the sudan where one point two million two estimates range to two point three million people are in danger of immediate starvation crop block walks on to have bought fifteen hundred metric tons of emergency food supplies that have been sent to the sudan they've also bought almost five hundred metric tons of seeds that are being planted now for harvest so when i say hot spots i would say  situations like that where the need is great nother example of that kind of situation would be in nairobi where the american embassy was bombed while what we know about the family structure in in nairobi is that for every breadwinner that represents twenty or thirty people in an extended family that that one breadwinner is responsible for feeding so for each person that was killed in that bombing or injured in such a way that they couldn't work that represents a whole society of people that immediately were plunged into dire economic straits so crowded walking one person that's right not one person it's twenty to thirty extended family members so crop walk signs are able to provide media aid in a situation like that immediate food any media maybe vocational training so that another person can step into that breach and begin to be a breadwinner for that very american spend a billion dollars a day on food a day by day and i think day on food in the developing world for many of the people in the developing world the nutritional equivalent of food that they each day would be equivalent to two ounces of rice that's about a half a cup of rice so it might not be rice specifically but the amount of nutrition they're getting a day for many people is two ounces the rice or half a cup the average person in the united states eats five the equivalent of five pounds of rice a day but i'm mad i won't do so if you could set a five pound bag of rice on this table and sat right next to it you would see the difference in the kind of availability of adequate nutrition that we have compared to many people in the developing world in north korea the north korean north korea is undergoing a very severe famine and the doors are closed so it's very hard to get a real handle on it but what we do know is that the government has cut the daily ration the rice for the north korean population to one ounce of rice a day to a quarter of what that's a quarter of a cup and incredible and they're to survive on that and whatever else they can manage in terms of subsistence farming you really don't realize how fortunate we really really are and i think that's one of the reasons that  we walk in the crop walk a recognition of the gifts god has given us and our ability to share just our health right as opposed to those people who aren't getting enough food  that's really some there is some good news in terms of global poverty and hunger ten years ago twenty six percent of the global population would be considered malnourished  later twenty percent of the global population is considered malnourished or undernourished so that's a six percent reduction globally and that's that represents a lot of people the global population is about five point two billion people so that's a significant number of people and that's due in large part to efforts of people like the people in peter's township who participate in the crop walk who have raised awareness of hunger and who've actually raised funds to fight many denominations have an active hunger fighting program lutheran world relief and catholic relief services and jewish joint distribution committee to gather a lot of good people who have really focused outside themselves and on the needs of sisters and brothers have made a huge difference numbers show you just what our little afternoon walk can do that blister you get on  there you priced definitely there is much need in our country both in the area of disaster relief and the area of hunger what does church world service do to address these concerns and needs to either of you amen on that well other than as rebecca said the disaster assistance when the horrible figs happened and they are there with food in  training you know there's also meals on wheels which the crop walks help to fund and food pantries as we've discussed already can you and want to ban just from crop walks alone three million dollars goes to local food programs in the united states that makes this that's a significant sum of money in addition to that three million dollars church world service which is the sponsoring agency for crop walks  places fifty percent of all of its resources are used to fight hunger in the united states and we might do that in times of disaster such as the recent wild flag fires in florida but was fires affected the most vulnerable in those communities there predominantly rural wildfires and so people who lived rurally in trailers and shacks out in the countryside had everything they owned taken away from them in a matter of minutes so church will service works with the most vulnerable in a community like that who have been affected by a disaster so we would we would give them emergency food and begin to help them get themselves back on their feet we also do some long term economic development work in the united states that's the old adage give someone a fish they eat for a day give them a fishing pole or teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime and that's the majority of money raised  crop walks is used in development programs like that to help people on their feet and to encourage long term economic and social security so that we do that in the united states and around the world  wonderful to hear that you know we do take care of our own here too because there is a need in more than we when they don't like that and that right in our own community right ok now here's the big one how can i protest to pay well first get on your walking shoes you can see any of us to get a sponsor form then you go out and ask your friends and relatives to sponsor you up to a dollar amount for your walk and the walk is on sunday the october eighteenth at arrowhead trail in peters township you bring a canned good and will go off and walk a five mile walk and we start one fifteen it generally takes between an hour and a half in two hours and deafer get those cookies at the end well the cookies they come from the different  churches people from the different church congregations bring cookies and as i said we have people who volunteer and sit there and make sure the cookies are ready for us when we come back and there's water in j eight thousand dollars i don't unfortunately have the exact amount right with me so that's pretty good for small town really well if you if your company has a matching funds program that's that's a real nice thing that a lot of companies will match whatever you personally can raise and we did have some people do that so rebecca do you have anything else she would like to add i just i'm really grateful for this community for fourteen years of faith for rocking in the kind of difference that you've been able to make in the lives of people right here on your neighbors and also people you know over seventy four countries and i thank you for that if anybody wants to walk in the crop walk and is not exactly sure how to get more information if you call one eight eight eight seed ws crop we'll get you all the information you need to to participate in the peters township crop walk would you mind excuse of not that anybody didn't know that the well i'd like to thank my guests this evening rebecca bald and carole brandy berry and well all i can say is i hope we