Naomi Hepburn and her dog both got quite a workout Sunday afternoon during St. Joseph’s annual CROP Walk at Hyde Park.

“I’ve been doing it for about five years,” the 83-year-old Ms. Hepburn said. “I feel like it’s a very good cause.”

The CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) Walk is sponsored by Church World Service, a cooperative ministry of various denominations that works to eradicate hunger and poverty.

Walk organizer Dave Berger, who is pastor of Hyde Park Presbyterian Church, said St. Joseph began holding the event in the 1980s. CROP Walks, he said, began in 1946 as an outgrowth of a surplus grain harvest produced by Midwest farmers that helped ease the devastating impact of World War II. A total of 2,000 CROP Walks are held across the nation annually that raise $17 million, Mr. Berger added.

This year’s goal for St. Joseph was to involve 100 churches raising $7,500, he said. A quarter of the proceeds benefits InterServ’s Mobile Meals program, while 75 percent goes to Church World Service overseas projects in disaster-ravaged nations such as Kenya, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Totals were unavailable to the News-Press Sunday.

InterServ has 50 people on a waiting list for its Mobile Meals. The program now feeds 220 people from 14 different St. Joseph neighborhoods, Mr. Berger said.

“Hopefully, by local dollars, we can help senior citizens who are hungry have a nutritious meal,” he said.

A complement of 80 walkers participated in the 2009 walk.

“This is a very small walk,” Mr. Berger said. “It tells the caring nature of this community” and has proven to be an effective way of uniting local churches, he said.

Ray Scherer can be reached

at rscherer@npgco.com.