The Dunkirk Fredonia Clergy Association at its monthly meeting will once again be sponsoring the annual Hunger Walk to benefit the Chautauqua County Rural Ministry food programs. This is the ninth annual event and will be held on Sunday, Oct. 7, starting at St. John's United Church of Christ, 733 Central Ave. in Dunkirk at 2 p.m. It is anticipated that nearly 100 walkers from local churches, Boys and Girls Club, Upward Bound Students, Jr. ROTC, and the local community will participate in the walk.
The annual Hunger Walk provides 75 percent of what is collected to Rural Ministry food programs and the remaining 25 percent to another designated needy organization as approved by the Clergy Association.
The Hunger Walk is community residents walking together to help take a stand against hunger and raise the awareness of hunger locally, as well as globally, as well as poverty, disease, hunger and inequality. Globally and locally, each has devastating effects on billions of lives. Many of the seemingly impossible problems facing the world's poor are linked directly to a lack of clean water.
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The annual Hunger Walk will be held Sunday, Oct. 7.
Nearly 1 billion people don't have safe water to drink.
A child dies every 15 seconds from a lack of clean water.
One-hundred-and-fifteen people die every hour from diseases linked to poor sanitation, poor hygiene and contaminated water.
One in five children who die before age 5 worldwide, die of a water-related disease.
Children often walk miles every day to collect dirty water to drink.
Water-related illness kills more people each year than wars and conflict.
"This local walk is so important to Rural Ministry food programs, which include our Friendly Kitchen, emergency food pantry, shop through program, and the countywide gleaning/food recovery project," states Rural Ministry Executive Director Kathleen Peterson. "Walkers devote time to make a difference in the lives of others; for that we are extremely grateful."
Peterson reported that last month alone, 7,700 pounds of food was recovered through donations and gleaning - food that otherwise would have been left in the fields to waste or taken to the local landfill. The Friendly Kitchen served 21,137 meals so far this year and an additional 108,881 meals were provided through the emergency food pantry, a significant increase in comparison to last year at this time.
Anyone wishing to walk this year or make a contribution to the Hunger Walk may contact their local church or stop by Rural Ministry offices at 127 Central Ave., Dunkirk (366-1787).
The Chautauqua County Rural Ministry is a community partner of the United Way of Northern Chautauqua County.
