Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk

Refugee Resettlement

2010-04-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there are 14 million refugees worldwide? 14 million. With a number that large, it's easy to think that we cannot make a difference and to just imagine refugees as a faceless entity that we can ignore. But refugees aren't faceless, they have names and need just like you and I. They had hopes a dreams for themselves and for their children that were dashed because of civil unrest, because of their ethnicity, or because of a war in which they are not involved. They are God's children, just like you and I and they are in need of help.

Annually, the United stated welcomes 80,000 refugees for resettlement. This means that less than 1% of refugees will be resettled. However, it means everything to those 80,000 who have worked for 20-30 years to be eligible for resettlement. Living lifetimes in conditions that we couldn't imagine in hopes of better opportunities and a chance to feel safe - to not have guards with assault riffles as a part of their normal day.

Each year, Church World Service (CWS) resettles 200+ refugees in the Greensboro area. These individuals are placed in communities within their ethnic group so that they are able to have an immediate sense of community. The are provided with case management and assisted in finding employment. They learn English as a second language - as astoundingly rapid rates. They are taught how to shop, pay bills, and do the other things that you and I take for granted. In all of these things, they are guided by staff and volunteers with CWS.

Where does your CROP money go? Yes, 75% of it goes to CWS, but clearly, that is having an impact on our own community. It is making it a richer, more diverse place to live. A place where we embrace those who have been persecuted and are able to daily exhibit God's grace and love to our brothers and sisters. That is where your CROP money goes.

For more information on how you can be part of the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk, please visit www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org.

Children

2010-03-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

"We want children to grow up strong and healthy because they might grow up to do something great." - First grade student

How true this statement is and what meaning it holds. A recent report from Partners Ending Homelessness and the Homelessness Prevention Coalition of Guilford County reported that 1,585 children experienced homelessness over the course of the 2008-2009 school year (this is an 8% increase from the previous year). On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the Guilford County School system reported that 1,230 children were experiencing homelessness on that day.

These children are the future of our country, they are our future educators, politicians, clergy, and far too many of them are experiencing hunger and homelessness on a daily basis. While adversity my fuel the fire of change and ignite a passion to right the wrongs they have suffered, all too often it leads to a defeatist attitude from which these children will not escape. They will fall victim to the cycle into which they were born and they will in turn become another statistic.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and hope to be had for these children who suffer through no wrong of their own. Through the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk, funds are raised to help feed the less fortunate in our community at the Greensboro Urban Ministry Potter's House Community Kitchen. In addition, Greensboro Urban Ministry provides shelter and assistance through Pathway's Center and Partnership Village.

Don't let another child become a statistic. Pledge to help by participating in the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk on October 17, 2010 and let's help our community's children "grow up strong and healthy."

Celebrating 30 Years of Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty

2010-03-16T09:30:00.001-07:00

Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty. Over the past 29 years, Greater Greensboro area residents have certainly come together as a community to overcome poverty by walking in the annual Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk. Since its humble beginning in 1981, over $4 million dollars have been raised by area walkers. Of this $4 million, over $1 million has come back to our community to help fight poverty through the work of the Greensboro Urban Ministry Potter’s House Community Kitchen. The remaining $3 million has funded projects around the world including recent work in Haiti and Chile to help individuals displaced by the devastating earthquakes.

As we celebrate our 30th Anniversary of the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk we want to renew our dedication as a community that responds to overcome poverty. The longest continuously held walk in Greensboro, we are also the 2nd largest CROP Hunger Walk in the nation (second to Charlotte). Given this history of bonding together as a community to support a common cause, we hope to make our 30th Anniversary a year to remember – both for the camaraderie of the community as we bond together, and for the funds we are able to raise to help overcome poverty.

Helping us meet our goals of overcoming poverty again this year is our platinum sponsor Syngenta. More than just a financial sponsor of CROP, their mission to “help growers around the world to meet the challenge of the future: to grown more from less” is one more way that communities are responding to overcome poverty. We thank them for their continued support. And, we welcome other potential sponsors who would like to join in to help us overcome poverty locally and globally. For more information on sponsorship, please visit www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org.

Lastly, we invite you to join us this year. If it’s your first time walking or your 30th, we welcome your support and encourage you to join our community. We are making a difference in the lives of others and we welcome your support. For more information on how you can become involved, please visit www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org or e-mail Christine Byrd at byrd@guministry.org.

International Women's Day: Investing in women strengthens society

2010-03-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

Church World Service : International Women's Day: Investing in women strengthens society

Help me to remember . . .

2010-03-01T12:03:00.001-08:00

Oh, God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;

When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;

When I have a warm home,
help me to remember the homeless;

When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer;

And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency
and bestir my compassion.

Make me concerned enough to help,
by word and deed,
those who cry out
for what we take for granted.

-Reverend Samuel F. Pugh (1904-2007)

A CROP Walk? You mean you're going to walk through a field?

2010-02-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

"Are you walking in the CROP Walk?"
"The what walk? I'm not walking through a field!"
"No, no, no. The CROP Hunger Walk - Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty!"

Sound like deja vu to you? If you've participated in a CROP Hunger Walk, then I imagine that you've engaged in a similar conversation at some point. So, what exactly is a CROP Hunger Walk and does it involve fields?

CROP began in 1947 and were originally an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program, who's primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia. So, yes, at one point, it did involve walking in a field! On October 17, 1969, in Bismark, ND, the first-ever CROP Hunger Walk was held with a thousand people in attendance, raising $25,000. The CROP Hunger Walk has evolved since that October day and so has it's name. CROP now stands for Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty and the walks do not involve fields (unless your route happens to walk past one).

Today, CROP Hunger Walks are interfaith hunger education and fundraising events sponsored by Church World Service, a cooperative ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations who provide self-help and development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance around the world, including the US.

Won't you join the more than five million CROP Hunger Walkers and take a walk, not through a field, but through your city streets, in solidarity to help end hunger and poverty?

Please visit www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org to learn more about the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk.

Do you know the face of hunger?

2010-02-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

For many of us, the immediate image that comes to mind is of the starving children in Ethiopia who are seen frequently on the television, but hunger has another face. It could be seen in the face of your neighbor, your co-worker, your classmate, it could even be you . . .

Hunger is on the rise. Since the beginning of the current economic crisis, food banks across the state have seen better than a 40% increase in demand, with some food banks in the Greater Greensboro area seeing as much as a 70% increase. Here at Greensboro Urban Ministry, where our Potter's House Community Kitchen once served only 300 meals at lunch, we are now serving 450-500 meals a day. According to national statistics, North Carolina (along with Louisiana) leads the nation in hunger among children under the age of 5, with 1 in 4 children knowing hunger on a regular basis.

These numbers are appalling and hard for many people to accept, because hunger isn't "our problem." It only happens in other places to other people. But, the sad reality is that it is our problem. If we have learned nothing else from the current economic situation, it should be: "There go I, but for the grace of God."

Hunger knows no boundaries and can effect anyone, but there is hope. Through organizations such as Greensboro Urban Ministry and Church World Service, steps are being taken to help end hunger and poverty, to break the cycle that perpetuates these problems. Your participation in the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk can help these agencies to do the work that is so urgently needed.

Let us bond together and work so that we can reach a place where we do not know the face of hunger, not because we are ignorant of it, but because it no longer exists.

For more information, please visit www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org.

Hope in Haiti

2010-02-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

The destruction in Haiti has been devestating, but Church World Service (the agency which receives 75% of the funds raised from CROP) as been there since the first earthquake. They have already provided more than $800,000 in aid in the form of CWS blankets and kits (for more information visit www.churchworldservice.org). Additionally, CWS has already raised $1.3 million toward their goal of $2 million to assist those effected by this horrible disaster.

While many of our news outlets have focused on the destruction, see below the words of Mr. Martin Coria, official CWS Representative to Latin American and the Caribbean as he describes the scene in Port-au-Prince 48 hours after the quake struck. What he found brings hope in the light of this disaster.

“The neighborhood of Carrefour-FeillesPart is devastated (destruction is almost 100 percent in some parts). On my way into the neighborhood with Polycarpe Joseph, Director of the Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice (FOPJ), and whose work has been supported for decades by CWS and the CROP Hunger Walks in the USA, he pointed out to me several school buildings that collapsed full of students whose bodies are still there waiting to be recovered from the rubble.

"After a long trip where we passed by two distribution centers secured by lots of US and UN troops, Polycarpe parked his old pick-up in a corner and said: 'Follow-me.' We walked 5 minutes among destroyed homes with people (mostly women) washing, talking. I noticed they were almost no children which I found strange.

"Suddenly, we made a turn in a alley and there they were: under a big tent made out of big pieces of blue plastic that occupied what formerly was a street, more than one hundred children aged 6 to 14 were sat down, in small groups, paying a attention to what a group of Haitian teachers were telling them. Looking at so many children in that place surrounded by all the destruction was like finding a treasure.”

For more information on how you can help CROP, visit www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org.

Starfish

2010-02-01T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Starfish Story
adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley (1907 - 1977)

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."
________________________________

All too often we are the "wise" man in the story, wondering how our small contribution can possibly help when there is such need in the world, too overcome by such insurmountable needs to think that we can make a difference. Yet imagine, if each of us were to help just one starfish, how many millions of starfish we would help and what an impact we would have on the world.

Through our donations to the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk, we are that young man, striving to make a difference to just one starfish. Combining our efforts with over two thousand other Walks, we are clearing the beach of starfish.

So, will you be the "wise" man or the young man? Will you help just one starfish?

Visit us online at http://www.greatergreensborocropwalk.org/ to find out how you can help.

CROP Walk Reflections

2010-01-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

by Hamp Hunter

The first decade of the 21st century (2000 – 2009) is now complete. During these 10 years, our nation has experienced some very “trying-times”. There was much turmoil in 2000 when the dot-com/technology market crashed; to be followed by the terrible terrorist attacks in September 2001. Then the decade ended with the global financial system near collapse causing the deepest worldwide recession since World War II.

As we begin 2010, unemployment and poverty are at levels most of us have never experienced. Try and imagine how those in need must feel about the uncertainty of the future. Yet, there is hope and assistance both locally and worldwide with wonderful organizations like GUM (Greensboro Urban Ministry) and CWS (Church World Service), the organizations supported by the Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk.

The challenges of the past decade did not dampen the spirit at our community. Community members have really “Stepped-Out” as recruiters and walkers and “Stepped-Up” with generous donations to help others. Their support brings to life Jesus’ teachings of feeding the hungry and loving our neighbors.

In 2010, will you please consider being a Sponsor? Walker? Recruiter?

On behalf of all the hungry that benefit from GUM and CWS services, Thank You Greater Greensboro.

Congratulations to our top 2009 Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk Teams!

2010-01-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk Teams - You recruited, you walked, and you raised over $197,000 securing our place again as the second largest CROP Hunger Walk in the United States. We thank you for your hard work and dedication to end hunger and we look forward to what we can accomplish together next year in the 30th Anniversary of our Greater Greensboro CROP Hunger Walk. Working together, we can STOP Hunger.

A special thanks and recognition goes out to the following teams:
Highest % Increase from 2008 to 2009
(for teams raising less than $1,000 in 2008)

Community in Christ Church	11600%
Partnership Village	2196%
St. James Presbyterian	1012%
Our Lady of Grace Catholic	910%
St. Matthews UMC	703%

Highest % Increase from 2008 to 2009
(for teams raising more than $1,000 in 2008)

Friends Homes West	216%
St. Francis Episcopal	162%
Bass Chapel UMC	143%
Lees Chapel UMC	140%
Canterbury School	133%

Top Newcomers

Wells Fargo Walking Warriors	$2,130.00
College Place UMC	$1,912.66
Tabernacle UMC	$1,196.10
Unity in Greensboro	$1,176.25
Pleasant Union Methodist	$810.00

Top 20 Organizations

St. Pius X Catholic	$25,435.46
First Lutheran	$10,275.66
Congregational UCC	$9,760.00
West Market Street UMC	$7,638.52
Holy Trinity Episcopal	$7,468.00
Christ UMC	$6,953.56
Ebenezer Lutheran	$5,036.53
Friends Homes West	$4,415.00
Guilford College UMC	$4,200.41
Friends Homes at Guilford	$4,025.00
St. Andrew's Episcopal	$3,582.00
St. Francis Episcopal	$2,798.00
St. Paul Catholic	$2,756.00
Presbyterian Church of the Covenant	$2,501.00
Canterbury School	$2,375.00
Guilford Park Presbyterian	$2,370.00
Wells Fargo Walking Warriors	$2,130.00
Peace UCC	$2,105.06
Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit	$2,043.00
Christ Lutheran	$2,000.00

Thank you and congratulations to all of our teams who participated this year!

**Totals are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of January 20, 2010 and do not include matching gift donations. If you find that our numbers are in error, please contact Christine Byrd, byrd@guministry.org or 336.271.5959 ext 339.**