BY CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB

In just a few days, on Sunday, Nov. 20, community folks will be walking or running to end hunger. The local “CROP Hunger Walk and Turkey Trot” is held annually in Los Alamos at 2:00pm on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Participants bring monetary donations to the event to benefit the local hunger work of our food bank, L. A. Cares, and the global work of Church World Service (CWS). On average there have been 150 to 200 participants and up to $15,000 is raised.

CROP Walks, an effort to fight hunger locally and globally, have been held annually in over 500 communities around the nation since 1969. CWS uses its share of the funds raised to provide local and global relief services in communities suffering from malnutrition, or from devastating natural disasters.

For the Los Alamos Walk/Trot, gathering will begin at 1:30pm at the Middle School on North Mesa. Registration (weather permitting), start and finish lines will be in the parking area of Los Alamos Middle School. The school will be open for the use of bathrooms.

The running/walking course itself provides two options: a shorter route at 1.7 miles, or an added loop through the stables for a total of 2.57 miles. Both courses start and end at the Middle School, taking San Ildefonso downhill and turning left on North Mesa Road.

Runners will be allowed to line up first at the starting line, the walkers behind them. The start gun will go off at 2:00pm. Race results, for the runners, will be made public after the event.

The time to turn in monetary donations you have collected will be before the course, at the registration desks. (Any food you want to donate for L. A. Cares can be given to Boy Scouts and Postal workers on Saturday the Nov. 19 when they pick up from people’s homes.)

It’s time to fundraise for the Los Alamos Hunger Walk and Turkey Trot! Put Nov. 20 on your calendar and brush off your running shoes!