CropValley City (CSi) Valley City and area residents are invited to join the original CROP Walk for Hunger event in Valley City on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 7 pm. The walk starts at Faith Lutheran Church.

Pastor Emmy Swedlund, at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Valley City. says “Everyone is welcome to walk or donate,” states And the walk this year has been shortened to 5 kilometers (about 3 miles).

Pastor Jolene Knudson-Hanse, adds, “This is an opportunity to fight hunger globally and in our local community.”

Twenty percent of the funds raised with go the Barnes County Food Pantry.

The funds going overseas will go through Church World Service, an ecumenical development and relief organization that works across the world. They also work in the USA and provided relief services as they did in 1997 for the people in Grand Forks during and after the flood.

Presently Church World Service is working with the 200,000 evacuees as a result of the earthquake that hit Kumamoto, Japan in mid April. In Pakistan they are providing education about heat stroke and to provide treatment of heat stroke, in expectation of a record high temperature coming this summer.

Last summer temperatures reached 120 degrees F, with reported 2000 deaths. The people in this area are vulnerable because of the extreme poverty, with few having electricity.

Tanzania has a refugee camp which is home to 85,000 Burundi refugees and 62,000 Congo refugees despite its intended capacity of 50,000. Church World Service is helping provide water and sanitation facilities (e.g. water storage tanks that supply 10,000 gallons of water daily).

More than 689,000 Syrians have sought asylum in Europe since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. Church World Service is helping countries provide food, shelter, blankets and baby care kits for these people.

Walk Chairperson, Sharon Buhr, encourages interested walkers to pick up a pledge/donation sheet from area churches or to contact her at 845-5197.