40 years strong: Quad-Cities CROP Hunger Walk


October 25, 2011

The Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk celebrated its 40th year on October 2, 2011. Walkers from Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill., came together for the nation’s only bi-state CROP Hunger Walk. Photo: Lyle Miller

The Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk celebrated its 40th year on October 2, 2011. Walkers from Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill., came together for the nation’s only bi-state CROP Hunger Walk. Photo: Lyle Miller

Hunger is a moving topic for folks in the Quad-Cities Area. The proof? Roughly 700 walkers from Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill., took to the streets on October 2 to help fight hunger in the nation’s only bi-state CROP Hunger Walk.

This year marked the 40th year for the Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk. Ann Wachal, program director for Churches United of the Quad Cities Area, which organized the walk, said the walk has raised an average of $50,000 a year since it began. This year’s total is still being tallied.

“It was a really great event,” Wachal said, and it’s one that appears to be growing.

“St. Mark Lutheran – who just started walking two years ago – has grown from a handful of people to over 30,” Wachal said.

Along with veteran walkers, the interfaith event drew hunger walk newcomers and participants from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. Young and old, students and teachers – and even a man dressed as a bunch of grapes to symbolize food – embarked on the 6-mile trek that began at Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport.

Some came as part of a service project. Wearing the “Hunger Hurts” T-shirts they’d made, 62 students from St. Paul the Apostle School in Davenport, raised $1,500 for this year’s CROP Hunger Walk, according to social studies teacher Lynn Leming.

Others walked in tribute. With a large sign stating, “We’re walking in memory of our friend,” some 25 members of Edwards United Church of Christ in Davenport, honored fellow member Clyde Durrah, a long-time CROP Hunger walker who died in 2010.

A man using a walker also joined the trek – to the delight of his fellow parishioners from First Lutheran Moline. At 79, Jim Teske had already proved his tenacity after suffering a broken neck in November 2010, undergoing surgery and working hard to regain his mobility. He raised about $1,200 through the CROP Hunger Walk.

“This year was extra special for us,” said Rev. Dan Witkowski, pastor of First Lutheran Moline, not only because of Teske’s recovery but also because his parish raised $6,000. The pastor, who was born the same year as the Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk, recalls his childhood church being involved in the event. “It’s always been something we wouldn’t want to miss,” Witkowski said.

No matter what moved them initially, all the walkers came to help the world’s hungry. “We try to do as much outreach as we can,” said Patty Henneman, a Session committee chair and the CROP Hunger Walk organizer for Rock Island’s South Park Presbyterian Church. Alleviating hunger is a priority for the church, which regularly assists food pantries and serves at a meal site. Henneman said she was thrilled with this year’s CROP Hunger Walk turnout – and the $2,884 raised by her congregation’s walkers.

Tom Kalshoven, a former Churches United director, told Quad-Cities Online reporter Jonathan Turner that “people in this world have to walk miles just to get water. One of the things I know CROP does is to help get water supplies.

“It’s not just food; it’s the food and the resources to produce food so that people will not go hungry,” Kalshoven said.

The reporter also spoke to Emma Gradin, a St. Paul’s seventh grader, who told him that the walk makes her appreciate what she has. “You should be grateful for what you get,” Emma said.