CWS has been feeding the hungry and assisting the vulnerable for more than 68 years! Photo: CWS CWS has been feeding the hungry and assisting the vulnerable for more than 68 years! Photo: CWS Church World Service was born in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II. Seventeen denominations came together to form an agency "to do in partnership what none of us could hope to do as well alone." The mission: Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, comfort the aged, shelter the homeless. More than 70 years later the mission remains, though where and how we accomplish it has changed dramatically. lso in 1947, CWS, Lutheran World Relief, and the National Catholic Welfare Program created a joint community hunger appeal, the Christian Rural Overseas Program, also known as CROP. The acronym is gone but the name and life-saving work remains as CROP Hunger Walks in some 800+ communities across the United States. The money raised today will go to the CROP Hunger Walk that we are hosting in the local community on October 27, 2019.