By Jay Sorgi • Posted November 21, 2024

Most Catholics in the Delaware Valley have plinked a few coins into those small, paper cardboard Rice Bowl boxes during Lent over the last half-century. Countless kids took them home to parents and filled the boxes every so often, handing them back to the teacher at the end.

Catholic Relief Services’ nationwide Rice Bowl program, a staple of many Catholic families’ Lenten experience, turns 50 in 2025. Philadelphia’s CRS team – the one that helped it become a national tradition – hopes the fundraising effort this year surpasses the record that area families set in 2023.

“I would love to get it back over $400,000 again,” said Catholic Relief Services Diocesan Director Anne Ayella. She reminds Catholics that the program helps fight hunger both in Philadelphia and across the world, but it’s also more than that.

“It’s not just about the money, but it’s about learning the stories, prayerfully, (and) praying for the people in need. So it’s prayer, learning, fasting and giving. It’s really all four components.”

In fact, that combination of learning and action that has spread nationwide found its source in an interfaith effort begun in Allentown and placed on the national launchpad in Philadelphia.

“When I was a senior at St. Joseph’s University, we were on a committee to help prepare for the Eucharistic Congress (in Philadelphia in 1976),” Ayella said. “The theme was the hungers of the human family. We wanted to do an activity that would help people to be mindful of the hungers of the human family well after the Congress.

“The overall director, Father Ed Brady, who’s a Jesuit, heard of the Diocese of Allentown doing a little project called Rice Bowl,” she said. “We used (Msgr. Robert J.) Coll’s model and started doing something similar in Philadelphia after the Eucharistic Congress.”

Msgr. Coll’s model was to invite people to eat one very simple meal per week and donate the difference between its cost and that of a more substantial meal to Rice Bowl.

“People got excited about it. It took off, and then Catholic Relief Services basically adopted it nationally and it became CRS Rice Bowl.”

Ayella said the fruits of this fundraising campaign have not only been millions of dollars raised locally, but also opportunities for participants to learn about their brothers and sisters in need.

“People have realized that we are all one human family, and that’s what Catholic Relief Services and Rice Bowl tries to do,” said Ayella. “It helps connect us with real life people in other parts of our world who might be struggling, and helps us realize that what we do can impact them.”

She said the program’s way of faith formation is tied closely to the Eucharist.

“Jesus feeds us, he nourishes us, and we’re called to reach out and feed those who are hungry,” said Ayella. “The catechetical aspect of it is so rich.. There are many retreats, and you can really get into the heart of why we do Rice Bowl as Catholics, and the impact that it has, and how it’s really what Jesus calls us to do. He calls us to make a difference for our brothers and sisters in need.”

Every year, Rice Bowl focuses on fundraising and awareness about four geographic areas. For 2025, the areas include Bangladesh, Guatemala, Nigeria – and the Delaware Valley itself.

“Most often, it’s supporting projects that are going to help people become more food secure,” she said, explaining that the effect is not simply giving people food.

“It teaches them new methods to grow food better. It helps people (such as) farmers with drought-resistant crops through workshops so they’re able to better accommodate their lifestyles as farmers and feed their families well,” Ayella said.

Proceeds from CRS Rice Bowl also feed the needs of the local community through the purchase of “foods that are in demand — high-protein foods and fresh produce and meats – (which) go to the area food cupboards and soup kitchens,” Ayella said.

She added that more than $85,000 of last year’s $341,959 raised stayed in Philadelphia and was spread to about 50 different efforts serving people regardless of religious affiliation.

But the quintessential impact of CRS Rice Bowl, Ayella said, comes from someone she met more than 20 years ago.

“Thomas Awiapo, as a young child, was orphaned in Ghana and struggled for food, and in his little village, he realized that Catholic Relief Services was building a school and they were going to have a daily lunch program,” Ayella recalls. “So he was 10 years old, he hated school, but he was always hungry, and he could smell this really yummy smell coming out of the chimney,” Ayella said.

The smell of good food cooking motivated Awiapo every day to eat lunch, “and then he’d be well enough to learn and do well.”

Awiapo got a scholarship to the University of Southern California, and as an act of gratitude, he devoted his career to supporting Catholic Relief Services in Ghana.

“He always holds up the little Rice Bowl,” said Ayella, “and says, ‘This is a symbol of love. This saved my life, and it really made such a difference in that one particular person’s life.’”

CRS’ goal in Philadelphia is to use the 50^th anniversary Rice Bowl campaign as a catapult to breaking the program record of $426,773 at a time when food insecurity is growing regardless of geographic location.

“The need continues to grow, both locally and globally,” said Ayella.

People can get involved through their parish or through the CRS website which has prayer resources, videos and sample menus from Bangladesh, Guatemala and Nigeria that families can cook and use in their Rice Bowl experience tied to their donations.

Click here to donate and participate in the 2025 Rice Bowl campaign.