Despite a significantly smaller turnout at the annual Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty Hunger Walk on Sunday at Hendricks Chapel, participants raised five times as much money as last year in overall donations.

Last year approximately 100 participants helped raise about $50, said Erica Monnin, a graduate assistant in the Hendricks Chapel Office of Engagement Programs. This year’s goal was to increase both the number of participants and the amount of donations.

The Office of Engagement Programs decided to charge a $5 registration fee at this year’s event. Overall, the event raised $250, a large increase from last year, Monnin said.

Twenty-five percent of the money raised will be used locally and 75 percent will be donated to the Church World Service organization, according to a CROP Hunger Walk brochure. The Hendricks Chapel Office of Engagement Programs, the Interfaith Student Council and the Better Together campaign hosted the event, said Syeisha Byrd, the director of the Office of Engagement Programs at Hendricks.

Church World Service is an organization that distributes money to smaller organizations such as local food banks and soup kitchens, Monnin said. Using infrastructure programs to grow sustainable food and provide access to clean water, the organization focuses on outreach in the Horn of Africa.

The walk, which totaled 3 1/2 miles, is designed to raise awareness and money for both local and global organizations, Byrd said.

‘Walking is good, but money goes a long way,’ she said.

Cool temperatures and overcast skies didn’t stop the 30 student participants from organizing outside of Hendricks, Byrd said. The event’s hosts worked to unite students from different ethnicities and religious groups, she said. As a result, several greek and religious organizations were represented, as well as members from the American Red Cross.

The walk started at Hendricks at 1 p.m. and continued down University Avenue into downtown Syracuse. Once downtown, the students merged with the Syracuse community CROP Walk to walk a one-mile stretch around Columbus Circle before they turned around and completed the walk back to campus.

Marissa Levy, junior communication sciences and disorders major and a member of the coed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, said she was eager to participate in the walk for a second time.

‘I feel really good, I know I’m making a difference,’ Levy said. ‘I walked last year and this year to raise awareness about how many people go hungry. It’s amazing to see how many people come out.’

Azhar Ali, a junior health and exercise science major, said he wasn’t able to walk, but was hopeful his efforts as a member of the Interfaith Student Council could help make the walk a success.

‘I hope kids realize how big of an issue hunger is in Syracuse. If you walk a block in either direction it’s drastically different from what you see on campus, and many students don’t leave campus enough to see that,’ Ali said.

While the walk may be over, Ali hopes that those who participated will not stop working to end hunger.

Said Ali: ‘You can raise all the awareness in the world, but if you can’t act upon the awareness, then you’re not reaching the full potential of the impact it could have.’

kfluttma@syr.edu

Published on October 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm