ROANOKE, Va. – Janet Chisom has been participating in the CROP Walk for Hunger since before she could even walk.
“The first few I was carried in my dad’s backpack, then I graduated to the red wagon, and eventually walked,” Chisom said.
Years later, she is now one of the coordinators for the Roanoke Valley’s CROP walk, which took place at First Evangelical Presbyterian Church Sunday.
“Locally it stays with the Community Solutions Center which is a part of Feeding Southwest VA, and it also works for disaster response and displaced people in the United States and around the world,” Chisom said.
The goal of the walk goes to ending food insecurity in our area and around the world.
Wes Childress is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Feeding Southwest VA, and says that food insecurity is more common than you may think.
“140,000 people are food insecure in our area, which is about one in eight people,” Childress said.
There are many reasons for hunger in our region.
“It comes in different shapes and sizes,” Childress said. “People think it’s the person that is really struggling, really out on their luck, but a lot of times it’s just their neighbor.”
“Maybe they live in a food desert where it’s hard to get to a grocery store, it’s hard to get good food, or they live by a convenience store and can pick up junk food,” Chisom said. “But what the community center works for is that people would have good healthy meals and would have access to that.”
The walk is not just about raising money. It is also to come alongside those who struggle with hunger.
“Walking in solidarity with others. Getting a bunch of other organizations and churches together that walk together on behalf of others that walk to get food, to get healthcare, to get to school, to get to a job to get food, we walk on behalf of them,” Chisom said.
25 percent of the money raised will go directly to Southwest VA, with the rest going to fight hunger in the United States and around the world.
So far they have raised over $13,000 dollars.