University ministries wants the community to walk a mile, or 3.1, in another’s shoes.University Ministries and local organizations are coordinating the annual 5K CROP Walk to benefit worldwide and local hunger relief efforts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Frog Fountain.
The walk is both functional and symbolic, said Laura Hagadone, a junior religion and social work major helping to coordinate the event.
“It’s to educate people about worldwide hunger and how to alleviate hunger,” Hagadone said. “The theme of the CROP Walk is, ‘We walk because they walk.'”
The walk will demonstrate how impoverished people in the world walk long distances to receive little food, she said.
The Rev. Angela Kaufman, minister to the university, said CROP Walks, or walks of “Communities Reaching Out to People,” are done in more than 2,000 cities and towns, nationwide.
She said she expects about 150 to 200 walkers from the TCU community and Fort Worth churches, who will raise money through personal donations or pledges from businesses.
Bo Soderbergh, executive director for the Tarrant Area Food Bank and chairman of the walk’s steering committee, said money raised in Fort Worth’s CROP Walk will go to international hunger relief efforts and the Tarrant Area Food Bank.
From the profits, 75 percent will go to the international cause and 25 percent will go to the Tarrant area, he said.
Kaufman said the international relief effort is organized by Church World Service, an organization consisting of 36 denominations, who work in 80 different countries to feed the poor.
Other organizations involved in the event are the TCU United Methodist Wesley Foundation, Tarrant Area Community of Churches and the Fort Worth Flyers, Kaufman said.
Social work students trying to educate the campus about hunger issues are volunteering at the walk.
Those who want to participate can register in the Brown-Lupton Student Center Suite 111, in the Student Center Lounge during lunch or the day of the walk, Kaufman said.
Food and drinks will be provided after the run, she said.
