VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)- The CROP Walk for Hunger raised $5411 through its three miles walk on May 1st. Twenty percent will be donated to the Barnes County Food Pantry. The remainder will go to help people in need across the USA or overseas.
The local food pantry is located at the Senior Citizens Center. Pat Hansen, the Center’s director noted that about 60-80 food boxes go out to people in need every month, with some months even higher than that. Boxes go to single individuals, couples and families.
Church World Service/CROP (CWS) works to support people in need across the globe. CWS reports the following story on their website. One such mother in need of support was Miriam Martinez. Miriam, who did not have an opportunity to go to school as a child is now raising her eight children in Krin Krin, one of many small villages scattered along the Coco River, which makes up the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. Struggling to find a way to provide for her family, she decided to farm land.
“I had no experience in working the land,” Miriam says. While she may have started out with no experience, Miriam has become a successful farmer- thanks to a CWS supported agriculture program. Her family now has about 120 acres of land, about 75 acres of which are under cultivation with banana and plantain trees, fruit trees, tubers, beans and rice. The rest is still forested. Miriam also has chickens, pigs, cows and horses.
Because of the compassion if people who donate to the CROP Hunger Walk, Miriam now grows her family’s food, and she sells extra produce to put her children through school. In addition, she is now an Agricultural leader in her community.
“Our CROP Walk Hunger team wants to thank everyone in the community who walked to raise funds to help mothers like Miriam, and others here in Valley City and around the globe,” states Jolene Knudson-Hanse, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church. “And a big thank you to everyone who donated to the CROP Walk for Hunger,” continues Knudson-Hanse.
According to the World Bank conflicts across the world drive 80% of humanitarian needs—needs which are causing many immigrants to flee from Central America and try to gain admittance to the USA.
“As a nation we need to support people in their own countries…like Miriam in Nicaragua,” notes Sharon Buhr, CROP Walk chair. “People love their own countries and don’t want to leave, but they are forced to do so when the safety of their family is involved. If we as a nation would offer more support to people in their home counties to help them gain skills and the ability to feed their families and be safe, there would be fewer immigrants,” continues Buhr.
