By Anne Ayella • Posted March 6, 2025

As a senior Biology major at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia in 1975, I certainly never dreamed I would still be involved with “Operation Rice Bowl” 50 years later. This initiative has certainly taken me on a very unique journey.

In 1975, we were planning for the 41st International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Philadelphia the following August.

The theme was the “Hungers of the Human Family.” St. Joseph’s University teacher and director of the Faith-Justice Institute, Father Ed Brady, S.J., was leading the second day of the Congress, which focused on the “Hunger for Bread.”

As a student involved with the Faith-Justice Institute, I served on the planning committee along with former Catholic Relief Services’ Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Director, Maureen McCullough. We collaborated closely with Father Brady to plan for a meaningful day that explored the connection between Jesus, who feeds us in the Eucharist, and our call to feed those who hunger for bread in our world both locally and globally.

In addition to scheduling inspiring speakers like Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Dom Helder Camara and Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, Father Brady was interested in giving participants a faith-formation action idea that would go well beyond the week of the Congress and remind folks of our ongoing call as Catholics to meet the needs of the hungry just as Jesus feeds our hungers.

Father Brady learned of an Allentown diocesan priest named Msgr. Bob Coll. He had initiated a program in his diocese which challenged families and individuals to learn more about our hungry sisters and brothers in sub-Saharan Africa who were experiencing a very serious famine. Parishioners were invited to join in solidarity by fasting and contributing the money saved to a fund that would have a direct impact.

Msgr. Coll called the Lenten program Operation Rice Bowl since so many around the globe subsist on nothing but a single bowl of rice on a daily basis.

Operation Rice Bowl seemed like the perfect follow up to the Eucharistic Congress. It was very well received in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and CRS soon adopted it as a national Lenten program.

After that, as they say, the rest is history – a beautiful, rich 50-year history that has touched countless participants as well as recipients.

In my mind, that is one of the beauties of Rice Bowl. The participant prays, learns, joins in solidarity by fasting and giving. Their lives are enriched by all four components. The beneficiary receives life-saving support that enables our global family to live with dignity.

The other aspect of Rice Bowl that makes it so special is the local-global connection. With Rice Bowl, it is not an “either-or” but a “both-and.” We meet our global family and respond to them as well as those who struggle locally.

Because of my initial introduction to this powerful program that directly touches the hungry, I chose to make anti-hunger work my career. In my 38 years with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I worked with the Community Food Program, which oversees a network of 50 area food cupboards and soup kitchens who are the beneficiaries of the 25% that remains local.

To stress the importance of the local-global connection, our local Church has been doing a Rice Bowl blessing at an area food program for more than two decades now. The food cupboard location is a concrete reminder of the local-global connection.

One of my favorite Scripture verses is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “Glory be to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” And I say “Glory be to God” whose power working in us through CRS and Rice Bowl has done infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

Through the stories of hope, we have met some whose lives have been impacted but we will never know the full impact. I thank God for the chance to meet and encounter folks like Thomas Awiapo from Tamale, Ghana who taught me so many things as I traveled with him on Speakers’ Tours in our Archdiocese. He reminded me that our love and compassion changes lives and that Rice Bowl is a living out of the Gospel of love.

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Anne Ayella is diocesan director of Catholic Relief Services in the Philadelphia region.