2007 Chicago
CROP Hunger Walk
Honorary Chairpersons

Special Notes to Our Walkers:

As Mayor and on behalf of the City of Chicago, I extend my warmest greetings to all those celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Chicago CROP Hunger Walk.

The event raises awareness of the many around the world who lack access to adequate nourishment or regular sources of food. By walking the route together, the participants of the CROP Hunger Walk help build community, raise funds to feed the less fortunate, and show their solidarity with those who struggle to find the necessities of life.

I applaud the organizers for their hard work and commitment to addressing the problem of hunger in Chicago and abroad. You have my best wishes for an enjoyable and memorable event and much continued success in the future.

Mayor Richard M. Daley
Mayor of the City of Chicago

Every year people from many religious communities join together for the CROP Hunger Walk. Each community has its own way of working but all communities share a common goal-to care for hungry people.

Symbols matter...When communities come together in the CROP Hunger Walk, the people literally put their feet on a common path and follow it until they reach the finish line. In this way, the CROP Hunger Walk reveals our unity of purpose.

Relationships matter...Sharing the walk and the work of caring for hungry people helps us get to know people from other communities. When we know real people from communities other than our own, we break down stereotypes and preconceptions that can separate people and build a unified response to the cause of hunger.

Numbers matter...When we work together as part of a large CROP Hunger Walk, we make a visible statement, to contributors and observers alike, that Hungry People Matter.

Robert C. Reynolds
Executive Presbyter
Presbytery of Chicago
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The annual CROP Hunger Walk continues to be a signal to people of faith that hunger knows no seasons and no boundaries. While we often are jolted into responding when there are natural disasters, Church World Service reminds us that there is a quiet disaster going on daily that never seems to subside. Hunger is a problem of the soul more than of the soil. There is enough food produced in the world to feed every man, woman, and child, but while more and more people in our corner of the world are decreed as “clinically obese” there are those who starve, not only far away but also close to home. Alleviating hunger around the world is a matter of conscience and faith.

I support the CROP Hunger Walk not only for what it can do for others but also what it must do to me – to open my eyes and soften my heat and unclench my hands so that I can share generously with others. I am delighted to be one of the Honorary Chairmen of the Chicago CROP Hunger Walk.

Rev. Dr. Philip L. Blackwell
Senior Pastor
First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple

A very long time ago, as a teenage member of a suburban church youth group, I went to help lead a day of recreation for kids in a St. Louis public housing project. There I first saw the broken glass and signs of broken lives of poverty. It was the church that first opened my privileged middle class eyes and continues to open them to the simple painful facts that too many of God's people are poor; that too few of us, the world's wealthy, hoard too much of the world's resources, and that God is constantly at work for justice and calls us to join that work. In the several years that I have been privileged to serve as one of my denomination's representatives to the Church World Service Board of Directors, my eyes have been opened to the powerful ways God is working on behalf of the poor and for justice through the wide and deep ministries of CWS around the world. From water to education to food resource development to long term disaster response to refugee ministries, we the member churches of Church World Service and every single person who walks and works for CROP is a part of those vital, life changing ministries. I never fail to leave a CWS board meeting feeling challenged but also proud of what God is doing through us. Of course, it is never 'enough' and when we try to grasp the horrifying statistics of global poverty it is tempting to be in despair. But together, walking and giving and working as Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty (CROP) we can be part of what God is doing to transform this world. My heartfelt thanks to all who support CROP. By God's grace and power, what you are doing matters for the children, the people of the world.

Rev. Dr. Jane Fisler Hoffman
Illinois Conference Minister
United Church of Christ

We are all diminished if we ignore the hunger of even one person. To pass by on the other side is to declare to the world - even if we do not realize it - that we have lost the capacity to love. We have denied the most basic commandment, which is to love God by loving our neighbor. The common good is fully served only when we respond to the basic needs of all whom God loves.

We can express God's love through charity. Let us of course work in shelters and food pantries. To be a church is to be of service, especially for those who are hungry.

But charity is incomplete without justice. Gandhi once said that those who think religion and politics do not mix do not understand religion. Our faith calls upon us to pass laws mandating housing for the homeless and food to the hungry. In a democracy we all have this opportunity. As people of faith, we are commanded to do no less.

Rev. Alexander Sharp
Executive Director, Protestants for the Common Good

Caring for the poor, sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry represent values we all share At a time when religious conflict and violence dominate the headlines, an effort like CROP Hunger Walk which brings us together around common values is incredibly important. I am honored to be part of it.

Rev. Dr. John Buchanan
Senior Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church