Residents of Cass County will be seen walking the track at the Cass County Council on Aging on Oct. 1, in order to fight hunger.

Cass County will be partnering with Church World Services to host the area’s 29th annual Crop Walk at 2 p.m., with registration beginning at 1:30 p.m., on Oct. 1, at the COA, 60525 Decatur Road, Cassopolis. Participation is open to the public, who can raise money to donate and walk the COA’s track in support of the cause of fighting world hunger.

Seventy-five percent of the money raised will go to Church World Services, an international organization that aims to provide people all over the world with clean water and sustainable food sources.

“Maybe [Church World Services] will help by providing seeds to third-world countries, or they will provide goats or chickens to help fight world hunger,” said Brenda McKinely, an organizer of this year’s Crop Walk. “They will also drill wells for clean water.”

Currently, Church World Services is also aiding in relief efforts in the southern United States to help victims of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey.

The remaining 25 percent of donations will be split between food pantries throughout Cass County, in Edwardsburg, Dowagiac, Cassopolis, Decatur and Marcellus.

“That’s something we are very proud of,” said Scott Scheel, of the Edwardsburg Food Pantry and United Presbyterian Church in Edwardsburg, which organized the Crop Walk for the last two years. “We are very happy to use this event to help out our people here.”

McKinely said the Crop Walk, because of the partnership with local food pantries and Church World Services, presents residents of Cass County with a unique opportunity to raise money, for both their neighbors and people across the world who they may never meet.

McKinely said that she has seen people raise money for the Crop Walk in many different ways over the years. One year, she had participants donate a certain amount of money per shoe they had in their closets, while during another, participants were asked to skip a meal out the week of the walk and donate the money they saved to the cause.

“It can really be kind of interesting and fun,” McKinely said.

Along the track, there will be different activities for participants to take part in that illustrates some of the problems world hunger creates. One of these activities will show participants what it would be like to dig through trash for food, while another will show how malnutrition affects the body.

These activities are to bring a sense of reality to how hunger affects millions of people each day, McKinely said.

“The theme of the Crop Walk has always been, since the beginning, ‘We walk because they walk,’” she said. “We take for granted that we turn on the tap and get water, that we turn on the thermostat and get heat, that we go to the refrigerator and get food. There are people who may have to carry buckets for miles to the closest well or firewood the same way. Even little kids do that in some areas.”

Ultimately, the Crop Walk is something McKinely feels anyone who is interested should participate in, so that Cass County can help make the world less hungry.

“Get your neighborhood groups together, your friends, your clubs, and raise money and come and walk with us,” McKinely said. “Really, [the Crop Walk] is a great way to give back.”