Parishes adopt Operation Rice Bowl
Spurred by Lent and daily cries of hunger from the poor in countries around the world, more than two dozen parishes, schools and religious education programs in the Archdiocese of San Francisco have signed on to participate in Operation Rice Bow this Lenten Season.
“Operation Rice Bowl is an opportunity to stand in solidarity with those in hunger,” said Patricia Ribeiro of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns of the archdiocese, which is coordinating the fundraising campaign here. “During the season of Lent we pray with our families and communities while learning more about our global community and the challenges of poverty overseas.”
Operation Rice Bowl had its beginnings in 1975 as a response to a drought in Africa. Overseen nationally by Catholic Relief Services, ORB has since then collected $191 million – $8 million in 2009 – to support CRS development projects to improve people’s ability to access food in communities around the world and in the United States. The participating groups in the archdiocese are part of more than 14,000 faith communities across the country supporting Operation Rice Bowl this year.
Recent ORB collections in the Archdiocese of San Francisco have raised $18,000 in 2007; $31,000 in 2008, and $13,000 in 2009.
Vice-Principal Sharon Hupf is coordinating Operation Rice Bowl at Ecole Notre Dames des Victoires in San Francisco. Tyson Scofield is in charge of ORB activities at Notre Dames des Victoires Parish.
The student body and staff at NDV School, a parish catechism class, and parishioners are taking part, Hupf told Catholic San Francisco. “The Rice Bowl program, through its educational piece, helps our students understand more about those in need and their responsibility to help them,” she said.
A prayer service on the second Wednesday of Lent begins ORB at Ecole Notre Dames des Victoires and materials including ORB collection boxes are sent home with students. Materials are also distributed at Masses the following weekend at the parish church. Boxes are collected the week before Easter, funds from the school and parish combined, and sent to CRS this year earmarked for Haiti relief.
Hupf, who has helped with ORB at Notre Dame school for the last three years, said, “The students become more aware of others and their needs and are enthusiastic about helping those in need. They develop understanding and compassion.”
In addition to the collection boxes, Operation Rice Bowl materials include a Lenten Calendar that includes daily reflections for the season, introductions to individuals benefiting from the work of CRS and ORB, as well as home recipes from countries including Bolivia, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia, that locations are encouraged to use for soup suppers and other Lenten events. The packet also includes a Parish Community Guide with relevant bulletin announcements, prayers of the faithful, and homily notes. Resources are also available online and include Stations of the Cross. An Educators Guide has lesson plans for grades 1-12 related to Catholic Social Teaching.
Operation Rice Bowl is implemented at Church of the Assumption in Tomales through the parish Religious Education Program. Patti Parks, parish secretary and Religious Education Coordinator, spreads the word about Operation Rice Bowl through the program’s 200 students.
“We open the campaign the week before Lent as the students understand about repenting so they do not mind giving up a candy bar or soda or something else they enjoy for the Rice Bowl,” Parks told Catholic San Francisco. “I think the most important thing about Operation Rice Bowl is that students understand that for a little effort and sacrifice they can feed families and that is a good feeling.”
Assumption Religious Education teacher, Gloria Mercado, is in her second year of helping coordinate the ORB effort. Mercado explained her role in Religious education as “teaching children to follow Jesus’ rules” adding “Operation Rice Bowl helps the children know more about hunger around the world.”
Joe Hastings of Catholic Relief Services, Seattle helps oversee the national ORB project. “Promoting ORB keeps me fairly busy from November to February, helping dioceses get the orders, materials, and information they need to then engage parishes and schools,” Hastings said.
Hastings also coordinates speaking engagements that take the front-line story of hunger to ORB’s participating locations. Thomas Awiapo, a one-time beneficiary and now employee of CRS, is scheduled to speak March 5, at St. Ignatius College Preparatory and Junipero Serra High School, and on March 6 at a Food Fast at St. Peter Parish Pacifica sponsored by the Office of Religious Education and Youth Ministry of the Archdiocese.
Hastings explained that ORB is not so much a fundraising program or a `collection’ but an education program, the reason so many educational materials are published for it.
“Personally, participating in ORB has given fasting a stronger, contemporary meaning, as something I do for God who is present in the poor of the world,” Hastings said. “I see and taste the ORB recipes as the meals of the future, the kind of meals we are all called to be eating by the realities of both world hunger and our environment.”
The CRS Operation Rice Bowl site offers many resources and suggestions. Visit http://orb.crs.org.
By Tom Burke
From March 5, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
