Update from our Walk Coordinator Janie Schildge

The 2021 CROP WALK SEASON got off to a rousing start in bright sunshine on Sept. 13th with a 4 hour park and pick up rally at the First Baptist Church in Red Bank. Luckily we had everything cleaned up and packed, including the tents, before the rain and wind arrived. (Our tired, hot volunteers were treated to Rita's Italian Ice, by TJ Eyerman, an RBR Teen Leader, and we were all very grateful)  Our CROP GEAR, personalized by the Teen Leaders in work sessions this summer, nearly sold out.  Lawn signs, sponsor envelopes and walk materials were available for pick up for team captains. 

On Sunday on October 17th we plan a joyous celebration of walking to end hunger for over four decades. We’ll be meeting at Red Bank Regional High School at 1:00 where we’ll have the big tent for our massive food collection, the annual art contest, photo ops, CROP gear sales, and music from The WAG. 

Walk participants will check in at 1:00 to enjoy registration activities and our victory lap around the school grounds will start at 2:00. 

Afterwards we will continue to enjoy music, refreshments (apples, ice cream and Italian ice, courtesy of Delicious Orchards, Sickles Market, Super Foodtown of Red Bank, and this years, Rita’s of Eatontown!  We’re trying to raise $141,000 to help alleviate hunger. Come for the caring and stay for the fellowship with everyone in our CROP Walk Family!

CROP Walk participants will be walking during the next few weeks on their own, with friends in small groups, others with family and neighborhood groups, as well as faith groups, school groups etc. They’ll walk 4.1 miles anywhere safe and convenient for them, in their neighborhoods, around their church and local parks. We hope to see them wearing any CROP Walk tee shirt from the past year walks.

As we’re less than 4 weeks from this year’s 41st Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk. It’s time to step up our efforts. Your commitment to fighting hunger has been our avenue to success for four decades. We have raised over $100,000 annually since the year 2000. We’ve been raising money for 15 local hunger fighting programs where 25% of all donations are distributed to these local partner programs right here in our local communities. 75% of the funds raised goes to Church World Service Global to support their programs which have had a mission to fight hunger and poverty in USA and other parts of the world for over 75 years. Yes, over seven decades!

In addition to the important financial goals, our local CROP Walk collects food (rice, beans, peanut butter, soup) for 25 local food pantries. Many of our team leaders organize food drives in their schools, places of worship, organizations and neighborhoods. This food can be delivered to Red Bank Regional High School on October 17 for same day distribution to our community.  We hope to collect 18,000 lbs. of food for the boys from CBA to sort, count, and bag for distributions to our local pantries. If you can’t come on the 17th, please advise us of poundage you collected and drop off at one of our local partner programs. Food donations may be dropped off after 12:30. 

Plan on being there and bring friends, and family. It’s uplifting and you’ll feel good! Thank you.

SCENES FROM SEPTEMBER 13 RALLY - SEE WHAT THE CROP HUNGER WALK TEAM HAS BEEN UP TO THIS SUMMER!

PARK & PICK UP RALLY SEPT. 13TH

Save the date! Please plan to drive by our PARK & PICK UP RALLY where you'll be able to pick up at the sponsor envelopes, signs, and other walk materials. Volunteers will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about this year's 41st Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk

Monday September 13th 3:00-7:00pm

First Baptist Church in Red Bank

84 Maple Ave. Red Bank, NJ 07701.  

84 Maple Avenue

Plans Grow for 41st Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk

Our coordinating committee met June 24th and discussed options for this year’s 41st annual community event. While we miss the large sea of walkers at the start line and moving through 3 towns, the beginning of our 5th decade of walking to end hunger will continue to be a hybrid. We are going to yield to caution because we care about the health and safety of our communities, and will again encourgage mostly online teams for fundraising.Individuals and groups will be doing their walk challenges from now through the month of October, and will also be setting up food drives to meet the needs of our local partners and pantry programs. 

 

Our rally will be at the First Baptist Church – a Park and Pick Up 3-6 pm on Monday, September 13th  under a tent. Last year's Park and Pick Up was a very uplifting experience as everyone embraced the necessary changes to protect each other and our communities during the pandemic.

We are asking all faith groups and schools to set up an online team. Last year's online efforts were so well embraced by supporting participants that we completely surpassed our 2020 goals.

Teen leaders are working on ways to use new CROP Walk merchandise to share the story of our CROP Hunger Walk and it's mission to respond to the needs of those facing extreme hunger.

Our teen leaders will also be contacting our 15 local partners to get acquainted with how they got through Covid and how they adapted to the massive challenge and increased needs of our communty. They will be creating short videos to share on our website and our social media. Teens will also review the ongoing efforts of Church World Service Global to respond to urgent needs here in the US and throughout the world.   

On Sunday, October 17th we will celebrate Crop Walk 2021  at our host school Red Bank Regional High School and enjoy art, music, ice cream and apples, and a festive display of our community efforts.  

41st Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk Sets Goals for 2021

Five months from now, hundreds of folks of all ages will help hungry neighbors by participating in the 41st Red Bank Crop Hunger Walk, a community hunger appeal of Church World Service Global. As we begin our fifth decade, our annual event continues to support 15 local hunger fighting partners here in Monmouth County, as well as global relief efforts through CWS.

Throughout the pandemic, Church World Service (CWS) provided hygiene kits, school kits, and blankets through food pantries and community centers to those coming for food and help. CWS programs work with those displaced, and the agency hosts projects to improve lives with clean water access, better basic sanitation, education, and skill training for more sustainable lives.

Due to Covid-19, our 2020 Red Bank Crop Walk was a virtual event. This didn’t dim the enthusiasm of participation for participants celebrating our walk's 40th year.  We raised our second highest total of funds in our walk's history: $138,000!

We hope to be able to gather on October 17, 2021, at Red Bank Regional High School, but at this date, we are still working within the guidelines established for the pandemic response. 

Individuals and teams from churches, organizations and schools are working on plans to help CROP Hunger Walk reach our 2021 goal of $141,000 or MORE. There are many ways to support our walk: forming an online team, walking, donating to a walker, and/or organizing a food drive during the month of October. You can drop off or arrange pick up for food staple items:  rice, beans, peanut butter and soup, for one of the 15 partner charities or a Monmouth County pantry of your choice.  Stay tuned for more information as decisions are made.  

Walk Coordinator Janie Schildge said, “Even though we missed coming together as a group last year, we were just amazed at how creatively people stepped up to make a difference. They came together in community with high counts of food and funds. You can still view our 3 hour virtual walk celebration with music and commentary on You Tube. Thank you to many local bands and produce/host Eric Hackler.  Look for Teen Leader planned projects to personalize some new and useful items to raise funds for the effort.

Of all funds donated to the Red Bank Crop Walk, 25% is shared with our local partner programs: The Center in Asbury Park, Lunch Break, HABcore, Monmouth Day Care Center, Calico Food Pantry, Matawan Community Pantry, Matawan UMC Pantry, Keyport Ministerium Pantry, AACC Emergency pantry, ASLAN Youth Ministries, Bayshore Lunch Program, Horizons, Meal at Noon in Long Branch, Family Promise, and NEW this year is The Back Pack Crew. The other 75% is distributed through Church World Service to national and global partner programs and disaster relief. 

Our CROP Walkers and Sponsors make this possible. Join us as we enter this 5th decade of responding to the needs of those facing hunger. You can learn more on our website and by following us on Facebook and Instagram. #redbankcropwalk2021  

CLICK the LINK below to REGISTER crophungerwalk.org/redbanknj/

2020 Our 2nd Highest Amount Raised in 40 Years to Help End Hunger

CROP WALK UPDATE: We start the new year with some very good news! Donations have continue to come in for our 40th anniversary CROP Hunger Walk and we've hit a record amount of donations as our supporters embraced online giving and stepped up to meet the challenges of ending local and global poverty during a year of a global pandemic and much turmoil and political unrest. We thank all our sponsors, participants, and volunteers!

Church World Service has updated the online giving platform to make things easier as we move forward in our work to end hunger. If you would like to view the webinar please click here to take a tour of the new fundraising platform.

Our Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk online fundraising page.

You can also look on the general online giving page for CROP Hunger Walks for informational resources.

40th CROP Walk View from your Coordinator, Janie Schildge

Our Red Bank Area Crop Hunger Walk is well known around the Two River Area, and back in 2012 when we were battered by Hurricane Sandy, Church World Service came to our aid with relief funds and materials for the New Jersey, New York area. This was an eye opener for all who had walked in past decades and knew that CWS responded to disasters, and cared for displaced people all over the world, and now right here at home in New Jersey. Nearly all the funds raised over decades by our region, came back to help us. Walkers gave never expecting to be on the receiving end.

Our CROP Hunger Walk is unique, in that we can choose to fund local hunger fighting programs in Monmouth County. Many CROP participants volunteer with these programs that are partners of CROP Walk. 

Our Walk has raised over $100,000 annually since 2000. In recession or times of natural disasters, we have had fewer funds but much more food as in 2012, and health kits and cleanup kits that filled a huge need. Now in 2020 we face a world wide pandemic that has really changed our lives. We were able to carry out our vision of fighting hunger and poverty for our 40th Anniversary!  

Due to Covid restrictions we couldn't gather at Red Bank Regional HS, walk through towns, or pile up our food collections under the tent at school for all to see. Pantry volunteers couldn't pick up bags of food to fill their shelves for hungry families. That didn't stop us from going from Plan A to Plan B, thanks to the forward thinking of Janis Iwanyk when we were making up our 2020 brochure  back in April. That Plan B went into effect as we watched the closings of many schools, few or no graduations, weddings, proms, and more.   

All meetings were held by zoom, a few work sessions were held outside with masks and distancing, and we chose not to design a new T shirt, but instead to honor our sponsors by subscribing to a full page Advertisement in The Journal, which reached out to 32,000 area subscribers. The creative writing by Lori Draz was featured in four months of The Journal. We are very grateful for the patience and interest of The Journal staff for helping us share our vision of CROP Walk during the time of Covid!   

First Baptist Church of Red Bank hosted our Park and Pick Up of materials back in September, and then Red Bank United Methodist hosted the Drive By and Drop Off on CROP Walk Sunday, October 18th where we celebrated reaching the $100,000 goal and a small group joined together for an online Facebook Live produced by Checker Liar Pictures’ own 

Eric Hackler. The three hour extravaganza was an expertly woven montage of local musical talent and Red Bank Crop Walk history in picture and story.  It is now available for viewing on our You Tube Channel. CROP Walk 2020  Thank you to all who made these events possible, as each required distancing, safety, time, talent,  and energy. Our Teen Leaders set up online teams, and sold many masks and bandanas to benefit Crop Walk, raising about $2000 and advertising our 40th year. We have bandanas available through venmo or email us at redbankcropwalk@gmail.com, and they make very useful stocking stuffers for the holidays, and doggie neckwear too! 

During the month of October individual groups planned events, walked miles for 40 years, and collected food for CROP local partners and pantries throughout Monmouth County. My husband and I chose to walk 4 miles a day at least five days a week and we have been pretty diligent in that task. Polly and Steve Chu chose to walk 40 miles and they went above and beyond. Our most famous team, Monica Fayett and her two poodles challenged themselves to go 400 miles in 10 weeks and posted on Facebook with tremendous response from the community. 

This year our CROP Walk goal was $110,000 and we had to create a new goals thermometer to show donations that are now up to $125,000 due to the generosity and compassion of so many CROP walk supporters.   

Thank you all for helping us go the extra mile for all the families hurt by the pandemic, and by the loss of jobs, and business closings.  If we look out for each other and reach out in small ways and large ways to help bridge the gaps for those who need some extra TLC, we will be ok.   

Through the use of Face book and Instagram, stories were shared, and art from past years and from 2020 were shared.  Pictures  tell a story.   We have amazing banners and posters that really express what it means to be hungry, what causes hunger and how each of us can make a difference.  

 
81 online teams registered from faith groups, schools, civic groups, and individuals. Funds were also raised off line using envelopes. Our committees offered ideas and flexibility so each group could plan its own event and do its own food collection. They selected an area pantry to collect and deliver food to.   Our 2020 participants collected about 8500 pounds of rice, beans, soup, and peanut butter, and we have widened our circle of caring to include Back Pack Crew, St. Catherine’s RCC Pantry in Holmdel, St. James Episcopal in Long Branch, and Asbury UMC in AP, along with our 15 local partners who are on the front lines all year long. 

This 40th Anniversary was unlike any others, but that didn't affect the success of this valuable community event. Thank you so very much for believing in our Plan and working with us to completion so that people can eat and feel safe and stay well because of our efforts. 

We offer our very best wishes for everyone to share a safe and healthy Thanksgiving with your immediate families. Don't forget to set up a Zoom call to share in your gathering with those not in your safe bubble. No matter the way we do it, when we care, we share the love. 

Kindness and Generosity in Action Through CROP Hunger Walk

 

Last night members of our CROP Walk Planning Committees met on Zoom to review updated results. We happily report that we've surpassed our 2020 Fundraising Goal of $110,000 and have already reached $125,000. Your donations will make a huge difference during a year of such trouble and uncertainty. Our local and global partner programs will use these funds to support urgent needs for our communities here and around the world. That's kindness and generosity in action! Thank you!

crophungerwalk.org/redbanknj/

Therapy Dogs Walk to Raise Funds to End Hunger

For our 40th Aniversary Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk, we've had to do think of all kinds of different ways to raise funds during a pandemic. Monica Faett our Art Contest Chair found a way to get out of the house, exercise, spend time with her beloved therapy dogs, and raise funds for CROP Walk. 

Monica put her feet to the street to help people eat. Her dogs put their paws to the street, grass, and sand to give a helping hand.

Jackson, Tino and Monica walked 400 miles in the weeks leading up to Oct. 18 to celebrate our 40th Anniversary! Their online team is raising funds to assist families who are living with hunger. They've already raised $1,390. You can help them to meet their $2,000 goal but donating to their team. Click Here.

The CROP Hunger Walk means we can take action for someone experiencing hunger; it means someone will get enough to eat. Monica's goal is to assist as many people as she can...that's why she's fundraising for more meals in her community and for long-lasting solutions to hunger around the world like community gardens and small-scale farming.

The steps we take - and the funds we raise - will make a real impact! Monica, Jackson, and Tino THANK YOU from the bottom of their hearts and soles.

CROP Hunger Walk Supporters Step Up Fundraising

Over 70 online teams had already reached $70,000 by the beginning of the official 40th Anniversary of Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk yesterday. Our virtual celebration was a great success and lots more info and pictures will follow in the coming days this week as participants share information on small group walks and food collections. Our treasurer, Sara Swijter, is busy counting donations dropped off at the Red Bank United Methodist Church yesterday. Watch the video below to see results on our fundraising goals thermometer. Online donations added to sponsor contribuitions and off line donations reached $100,000 by the end of the day yesterday.