What do chicken farming in El Salvador and preparing for disasters in Indonesia have to do with providing food to struggling families in Nelson County, Ky., or housing homeless veterans in Louisville?
These efforts are all supported by CRS Rice Bowl, the little cardboard box fundraiser that comes around each Lent.
The Archdiocese of Louisville had its largest collection in the last decade for Rice Bowl last year, a 38.5 percent increase in giving over the year before.
This year’s campaign to support Catholic Relief Services, the international aid arm of the U.S. bishops, kicked off Jan. 24. Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre celebrated Mass before representatives from 26 schools and parishes moved to the Saffin Center to hear about the collection’s effects globally and locally.
During Mass, the archbishop said that CRS Rice Bowl is one of his favorite childhood memories, noting, “That little cardboard box sat prominently in our home.”
“All that surrounded Rice Bowl expanded my understanding of sacrifice, my understanding of giving,” he said. “It opened my heart and mind to other places.”
He said people like to believe that at the heart of all we do is love, but it’s also sacrifice.
“Love is often equated to a good feeling, but love in its totality is sacrifice,” Archbishop Fabre said. “It’s me giving up something for someone else.”
When he served as a board member of Catholic Relief Services, Archbishop Fabre noted, he traveled to Kenya where he witnessed the impact Rice Bowl funds directly had on a community. There hadn’t been a reliable water source for a particular farming town, but CRS constructed a well, and “the landscape bloomed,” he said.
“To hear their great gratitude for the well and the generosity,” he said, “Rice Bowl really does help Catholic Relief Services accomplish those things for our brothers and sisters around the world.”
After Mass, students and adults gathered to hear from Peyton Rhea, Catholic Charities of Louisville’s parish and schools engagement coordinator. He began by discussing the global effects of the collection, administered by Catholic Relief Services staff all over the world.
‘Love is often equated to a good feeling, but love in its totality is sacrifice. It’s me giving up something for someone else.’
Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre
“The need now is teaching new farming methods to Ugandan farmers because the old methods aren’t working as well,” he said. CRS is also prioritizing chicken farming in El Salvador and disaster preparedness in Indonesia, projects that “retain the dignity of life of each person.”
In addition to projects worldwide, he explained that 25 percent of the Rice Bowl collection returns to the Archdiocese of Louisville to support local emergency food and shelter assistance to the poor. In 2023 CRS was able to give $40,000 to seven nonprofits, three more charities than the year before.
They are:
- St. Vincent DePaul Outreach Ministries in Bardstown, Ky.
- Bowling Park Community Center, Food Pantry and Homeless Shelter in Edmonton, Ky.
- Bethany Haven in Bardstown.
- Feed My Sheep Food Pantry in Burkesville, Ky.
- Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland in Elizabethtown, Ky.
- Sitio Clothing Ministry in Louisville
- St. John Center for Homeless Men in Louisville
Rhea also invited Ra’Shann Martin, executive director of St. John Center, to discuss how the donation assisted the shelter’s programs.
For almost four decades, St. John Center has served Louisville’s homeless — through street outreach, a day shelter with a social services center and permanent supportive housing.
“For a large portion of those 38 years, Catholic Charities and Rice Bowl has supported our work,” Martin said.
Martin explained that nearly 3,000 people visited the day shelter in fiscal year 2023. The center was able to help nearly 1,500 people get identification cards and birth certificates and 230 guests moved into permanent housing. More than 10 percent of the shelter’s guests are veterans.
To round out the event, Rhea reserved time for students in attendance to brainstorm ways to engage their classmates and parishioners in Rice Bowl fundraising. A St. Margaret Mary School student shared that last year, they offered incentives to the classes that raised the most money.Rice Bowl’s iconic cardboard boxes will start making their appearances around Lent, which begins Feb. 14. For more information on CRS, visit crsricebowl.org.
