This Lent marks 30th year of Operation Rice Bowl

Published: 2005-02-01

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- This Lent marks the 30th anniversary of Operation Rice Bowl, a seven-week program of prayer, fasting, learning and giving through which U.S. Catholics contribute millions of dollars each year to alleviate poverty and hunger at home and abroad. In an announcement released from its Baltimore headquarters, Catholic Relief Services, which sponsors the program, said millions of Catholics in parishes, schools and faith communities participate each year. Of the roughly $8 million raised annually, three-fourths goes to development projects that contribute to food security in some 40 countries around the world. The other one-fourth stays in U.S. dioceses to fund local programs. Operation Rice Bowl began in 1975 as a program of the Diocese of Allentown, Pa., and CRS, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency, adopted it as a national program the following year. General information about Operation Rice Bowl is available on the Internet at: www.crs.org/orb, or by calling: (800) 222-0025.

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