Talking Our Walk - Planning Tips

Starting Out

Plan an opening ceremony for the Walk. This is a great time to remind folks why they are walking by reciting a litany, highlighting basic facts about hunger, doing a skit, or telling a story of the work of Church World Service. Check suggestions in the Recruiter’s Packet (in your Walk materials or available from your CWS/CROP Office). Be sure to remind participants of the symbolic nature of their action: "We walk because they walk."

You might also want to invite other resource people to liven up the start of the Walk - clowns, musicians, etc. Invite local/state/national officials to speak (briefly), to walk and listen to Walkers’ concerns about hunger locally and globally.

If your Walk takes place in October be sure to mention that Oct. 16 is World Food Day, when groups throughout the world educate and act to alleviate hunger.

Along the Way

The Walk itself can be an educational adventure by the way the route is shaped, giving attention to need-related rest stops and signs along the way. For example, design the Walk route to pass by local food pantries and soup kitchens. Be sure to indicate if any of these are receiving funds generated by the Walk. You might invite Walkers to bring a can of food with them, either for collection at the beginning of the Walk or delivery to a food pantry along the way.

The End is the Beginning

Let the conclusion of the Walk celebrate what has been done, and invite people to consider next steps. See Living Our Walk on our website for suggestions. For example, invite Bread for the World members to set up a table and conduct an offering of letters on current legislation related to hunger. Bread for the World is a Christian citizens’ movement who seeks to influence the government in favor of policies that address the causes of hunger at home and abroad. For more information: Bread for the World, 50 "F" Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20001, 800-822-7323.

Know Your Resources

Besides the activities in this series, Church World Service has a variety of educational materials to assist you. A complete list is available at no charge from your CWS/CROP Office. You may find especially useful:

Making Poverty History: Hunger Education Activities that Work!
Facts Have Faces, a series of fact sheets on hunger-related issues.
Hungry Decisions, an online simulation game. Take the role of a woman or man in the so-called "Third World" and face the difficult choices impoverished people must make every day to survive.
CWS Hotline (1-800-297-1516) is a recorded update, changed weekly, of the worldwide ministries of Church World Service.

O God,
to those who have hunger
give bread,
and to those who have bread
give the hunger for justice.
Prayer from Latin America