Getting in Stride for Hunger Aid

Striding, ambling, limping and, in some cases, sacked out in baby carriages, South Bay residents of all ages took to the streets of San Pedro Saturday in the 10th annual Los Angeles Harbor Hunger Walk.

A field of 451 set out on the 10-kilometer loop starting in Point Fermin Park, pledging $24,445 in contributions from friends, family members and others who agreed to sponsor their journey.

“Hunger is a problem all over the world, and I’m interested in doing something to help,” said Ed Spencer, a middle-aged San Pedro resident, as he huffed up Graysby Avenue wearing a Raiders cap and athletic socks hiked up to his knees. “I don’t think people realize how big the hunger problem is.”

The walk was organized by a grouping of two dozen local churches and the Church World Service/CROP, the relief and development agency of the National Council of Churches.

Three-quarters of the funds from the event will be spent on emergency food service and agricultural development programs that Church World Service/CROP runs in 70 countries, organizers said.

The remainder, they said, will go to programs for the needy run by four harbor-area charities--Toberman Settlement House, Peninsula Harbor FISH, Sisters of Charity of Rolling Hills and the Interfaith Hunger Coalition.

Saturday’s field was varied. There was Nick Andrade, a bicycle company executive from Rancho Palos Verdes accompanying a fast-striding friend, and Gunnar Serpa of San Pedro, a partially sighted cafeteria worker feeling his way along with a cane.

Participants ranged in age from senior citizens to a 7-month-old infant snoozing in a stroller. The baby was accompanied by his mother, Sharon Redman, and Redman’s 15-year-old nephew, James Garcia, a member of the Torrance High School track team.

“I dragged him here to push the stroller,” Redman said, smiling at Garcia as they walked along Paseo Del Mar.

Betsy Barnhart, local coordinator of the hunger walk, said the turnout was the largest since the event was first staged a decade ago. But Barnhart said the problem of hunger in the United States is also growing.

“It’s continuing to increase, and it’s deplorable,” she said. “I think it’s obscene that a country as wealthy as ours has so many hungry people. Working parents can’t afford rent and food if they get minimum wages.”

Saturday’s walk was one of 45 hunger walks planned in Southern California this year, according to Dewayne Howell, Pacific Southwest regional director for Church World Service/CROP.

Another is scheduled for 1 p.m. today at the Corpus Christi School in Pacific Palisades, 890 Toyopa Drive. Others are planned for April 7 in Inglewood and April 29 in Long Beach, Howell said.