Rice Bowl Resources for Families
Dear St. Barnabas Parents,
Hello! I hope you are enjoying our annual season of St. Patrick’s celebrations around the city, and that you and your families are finding ways to enter into the season of Lent.
I’m writing today to encourage you and your families to enter into Lent this year in a special way by making sure to participate in the annual “Operation Rice Bowl” campaign to assist the work of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). CRS is the U.S. Church’s lead international humanitarian agency. Operation Rice Bowl, its annual Lenten program, has been around for 50 years--it’s the program in which your children receive cardboard piggy banks early in Lent; they also receive weekly lessons in religion class on the church’s work to provide aid to those most in need in our nation and around the world. Since 1975, Operation Rice Bowl has collected over $350 million dollars from families across our nation in order to help feed, house, and shelter those in extreme poverty.
Due to a track record of efficiency and success in aiding those in dire need around the globe, CRS has for many years been the recipient of substantial USAID grants from the federal government. These grants are now ending, placing CRS in a difficult position. You can read more about the tough situation it finds itself in in a letter written by our own Cardinal Cupich here.
In addition to the USAID grants ending, the motives and the effectiveness of CRS programs have been questioned in some quarters. Let me be clear: your parish leaders believe that the record shows that Catholic Relief Services is an effective anti-poverty organization and a force for good in the world, and that the loss of its grant funding puts many thousands of lives at immediate risk.
We ask at this time that you talk to your children about CRS and Operation Rice Bowl. We are hoping that this year, St. Barnabas can send a message to the nation and the world that we believe in Catholic Relief Services’ work, and that we care about those people CRS attempts to help. You can learn more about Catholic Relief Services here. Please consider giving generously to your children’s Rice Bowl boxes this year. Please consider as well taking a closer look at the work CRS does and contacting elected officials, letting them know that assisting CRS in their work is an example of our nation at its best--it is the work of smart, efficient humanitarianism (it’s also the work of the Gospel!) Thank you for your consideration, this Lent and every Lent.
Blessings to you,
Patrick McGowan
Director of Faith Formation