Paricipants of the Fullerton walk gathered in downtown Fullerton to raise awareness of hunger and poverty in the world and their local communities. Photo by Alison Munson/Daily Titan Staff Writer

The Downtown Fullerton Plaza was astir with people and music as crowds gathered to participate in the 2010 Vi Jones Fullerton Area "Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty" Hunger Walk.

The CROP Hunger Walk is a fundraising event in which people pledge money to sponsor individuals who walk 2.5 miles around downtown Fullerton. Twenty-five percent of the funds go to the Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Service, while the remaining 75 percent is given to the Church World Service, who distributes the funds locally, nationally, and internationally, depending on the level of need.

"Our main goal is raising awareness," said Tom Goellrich, Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Chair of the 2010 Vi Jones Fullerton area CROP Hunger Walk.

"If you were to take all the people in the United States who are hungry and who don’t know where their next meal is going to come from and you lined them up starting in New York, that line would go from the East Coast to the West Coast three times. That’s just in our country, and we’re supposed to be first world, so imagine in third world how many people don’t have food or know where their next meal is going to come from."

Church World Service, an organization that supports interfaith hunger education and fundraising events, sponsors CROP. Funds are shared with food banks, pantries and community gardens across the world. FIES, the recipient of the community portion of the fundraiser, provides emergency food assistance and support services to the hungry.

This year's CROP Hunger Walk was dedicated to the late Vi Jones who passed away last August. Jones was a prominent member of the Fullerton community and had always been in tune with the problems of the hungry, Goellrich said.

"(Jones) was involved in a number of organizations and recognized the problems of world hunger," said Henry Jones, husband of Vi Jones and a FIES advisory board member. "(She) participated in the walk for 28 years and this (would have been) the 29th. She always walked in the CROP walk."

With a registration estimate of close to 400 people, reaching the event's goal of raising $100,000 isn't too far fetched, Goellrich said.

"Everyone that you see here is a representative of a whole network of people who sponsored them. So even when you have 400 or 500 people walking, it’s an even larger community once you look at all the people who sponsored them," Suzanne Dysard, top online fundraiser in the country and organizer of the Boulder, Colorado CROP Hunger Walk. "With the online thing, now people can sponsor people from all over the country. It’s really a chance for people all over to help people around the community and those around the world."

The event was a family affair, with participants from all ages and denominations, from Christianity to Judaism, each group holding signs that declared their organization, association or purpose.

"Hopefully (participants) see that every one person can make a difference," Goellrich said. "Whether it’s walking or whether it’s volunteering in other ways, know that they are making a contribution to those without food. It’s that awareness factor and then the dollars."