“I invite everyone in our diocese to participate in Catholic Relief Services’ Rice Bowl program,” said Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison, a member of the Catholic Relief Services board of directors. 

“It’s a program that incorporates all of our traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving on behalf of some of the poorest people in the world.” 

The Rice Bowl program is an annual Lenten opportunity to connect your fasting with your almsgiving. 

Your daily sacrifices — a cup of coffee here, a dessert there — can add up to a life-changing difference for those around the world who suffer from hunger and food insecurity. 

What they do

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an official agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is active around the world, providing aid from the U.S. to those in need. 

Globally, nearly 700 million people face hunger today, and recent natural disasters, armed conflicts, and economic difficulties have made access to food even more challenging. 

Catholic Relief Services’ annual Rice Bowl program has been serving this need for 50 years. 

In that time, it has successfully raised more than $350 million to feed the hungry in more than 100 countries around the world. 

CRS Rice Bowl doesn’t ignore hunger and food insecurity in the U.S., either. 

Twenty-five percent of donations are kept local to the dioceses that give them, feeding our next-door neighbors who are hungry. 

The other 75 percent funds CRS’s international programs, which provide not only food and clean water, but nutrition education, support for farmers to restore their soil, assistance to mothers to support early childhood development in their children, and much more. 

“The Catholic Church is there to help lift people out of poverty, not through simply a handout, but really through a hand up, through self-sufficiency,” said Bishop Hying. 

“I’m proud to serve on the board of CRS, and I know firsthand from meetings I’ve been to and folks that I’ve listened to the impact of CRS on a global level, especially in areas of civil war in Africa.”  

What you can do

How does CRS Rice Bowl actually work? 

First, you obtain a rice bowl. This can come through a participating parish or school, or you can visit the website at crsricebowl.org/families to print a label and make any available container your official rice bowl. 

Second, throughout Lent, you follow the free calendar from CRS Rice Bowl and take action. 

There are suggestions on the calendar for prayer, small deeds of penance, and charitable acts, which will allow you not only to live the Lenten practices of the Church, but also to put a little money here, a little money there into your rice bowl. 

Finally, at the end of Lent, you collect the funds from your rice bowl and give them to CRS — either through your parish or school, or directly on the website. 

This tangible, practical way to tie your almsgiving to your Lenten practices encourages prayer for, and solidarity with, those around the world who are without basic necessities.

Fasting for families

You can check out crsricebowl.org for Lenten reflections, stories from their work around the world, and activities for various age groups of children. 

CRS encourages families to participate together, making CRS Rice Bowl part of their Lenten journey to tie them to the Church around the world and give almsgiving a concrete representation in their lives. CRS even offers recipes for meatless meals inspired by the countries they serve — a great activity to make the “rice” part of rice bowl a reality. 

“I was blessed to do four years of mission work in the Dominican Republic,” said Bishop Hying, “and it hit me between the eyes my first Ash Wednesday there that for me, fasting was a voluntary choice. Many of our people are on a perpetual fast. There, they eat maybe once or twice a day, and it reminded me that many people in our world struggle just to feed their children, and this act of almsgiving, this act of fasting, puts us in solidarity with them all in the name of Jesus Christ.”

The need is grave this year, and every effort truly helps: the program is built around the small, daily sacrifices of the faithful who participate. It’s not too late for your Lent to make a substantial difference to your brothers and sisters. 

To learn more, visit crsricebowl.org