The spark for the Des Moines Area Hunger Hike was lit in 1968 or 1969 when Edward O’Rourke, then director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference here, had a first-hand look at poverty in our neighboring Mexico. He was very concerned with the plight of Latin American people and instituted a “partnership” that originally consisted as a youth exchange. For about six weeks during summers Iowa youth would live with Mexican families and Mexican teenagers would stay with Iowa host families.
The youth exchange soon broadened into concerns for agriculture, water supplies, public health, general economy, etc. and Partners of the Americas was founded, with the state of Yucatan named as Iowa’s partner state. About this time, Leonard Wolf, who had served a term in the state legislature, went with the Agency for International Development (AID). He suggested to Father O’Rourke the fund-raising pattern he saw used in England – youth walking and collecting pledges – as means of funding Partners projects.
Subsequently, CROP (now Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty; then the Christian Rural Overseas Program) joined forces in promoting and executing the Hike. The first one was in 1969, with proceeds shared by CROP and Partners. There were no local recipients at that time. In later years an autonomous board of directors has divided allocations between local organizations providing free food for the hungry and those serving outside our immediate area, either elsewhere in the United States or in other countries – over 25 established non-profit agencies in all.
