Dear fellow member of Temple Shaari Emeth,
How do we respond to hunger? Put one foot in front of the other. On October 21, you can join me to do some active Tikkun Olam, helping to repair a part of our world, by walking and raising needed funds for Mazon: A Jewish Response To Hunger, at the Freehold CROP Walk.
If you can’t walk with me, please consider a donation. You can click here or bring/send a check to the Temple. (Once you register online, you can revisit the CROP Walk website and designate your donation to go to Mazon using the “Alternate Agency” field.) Walk registration packets are available at the Temple in the folio carousel. Register yourself online , and then email family and friends to sponsor you. Together, you and I can help end hunger and poverty!
This year’s local Walk will be hosted by The Reformed Church of Freehold, 67 W. Main Street, in Freehold. Sign-in will begin at 1:30 p.m. and the walk is from 2 pm to 4 pm. There will be a 2.6-mile route and a mini-walk route marked out in historic Freehold Borough. Refreshments, subs and water will be available. Every walker with pledges will receive a t-shirt! Students can also get service project credit.
The Freehold Area CROP Walk is organized by the Freehold Clergy Association, a group of religious leaders including Rabbi Panken and myself as well as from more than 25 Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim congregations and the chaplaincy of CentraState Healthcare System.
After years of decline, hunger is on the rise again, and today one in ten people does not have adequate food and clean drinking water. One in three lacks access to sanitation. There are 22.5 million refugees and 65.6 million displaced persons in the world today. Remember that we have a choice to put aside food on Yom Kippur, but for so many, fasting is involuntary.
Participating in the CROP Walk is a fun way to do something impactful about a serious problem. Walking helps us identify more with those in other countries who must walk long distances for water, food or firewood every day, and the awareness we bring by walking, and the pledges we raise, can change the world. Thank you for joining me to work together to make a difference!