Photo: Lisa Nipp/Seapower Magazine

For chaplain, CROP Hunger Walk leaves a lasting impression

Story by Thomas Hampson/CWS

Lieutenant Commander Kim M. Donahue, Chaplain, U.S. Marine Corps, got her start with the CROP Hunger Walk in her community, Rocky Hill, New Jersey, in her teens.

Donahue was president of the youth group at her church -- a group that included teens from other congregations in Rocky Hill, as well. Her pastor told her that CROP was going to open an office in their town, and the new CROP director was looking to involve the community’s youth in a walk for the hungry.

Donahue remembers, “It was in the early ’70s. Famines were pretty big news. I could certainly relate to the activity of walking, coming from a small town where most of us could walk to our meetings. I was asked to be Youth Coordinator for the first CROP Walk in Rocky Hill.”

Donahue remembers, too, that when the Walk was over, they were all tired, content, and gathered in the church sanctuary drinking water. “The camaraderie and enthusiasm I had felt in the planning stages with the adults was great,” she says. “But it was surpassed when we walked and talked and thought about all those who must walk to get water daily. Walking for me would never be the same. My little town was now connected to other people in other villages, people whose needs were greater and at the same time simpler than mine and who had become very real to me.”

Recently, Donahue viewed the DVD “CWS – 60 Years of Help and Hope,” and was struck by it: “As I watched, it dawned on me for the first time that the CROP Walk was one of my first real experiences of an ecumenical community at work and worship. CROP Walk opened a world to me at a young age, showing me that Christians from many denominations can and do come together to accomplish good in the world for people.”