CRS Rice Bowl Program Update

To: Rice Bowl Coordinators
From: Your Missions Office

We are nearing the end of Lent and the end of the CRS Rice Bowl program as we approach the glorious Easter season! Thank you for your continued commitment to serve as Rice Bowl coordinator to your community—we couldn’t do this important work without you. Below are two items of interest as we prepare to wrap up Lent and celebrate the risen Christ:

1. The first is the program evaluation for CRS Rice Bowl found in hard copy form in the back of the Coordinator’s Guide; please complete the evaluation while the CRS Rice Bowl program is still fresh in your mind. Please share your photos and best practices with us too!
2. The second is a sampling of bulletin announcements to be used beginning with Palm Sunday and through post-Easter bulletins, as a help in collecting rice bowl giving in your community. These are also available on the Catholic Printery website.

Missions Office staff is available to assist you, as always. Email us at missionsoffice@seattlearch.org or call (206) 382-4580 or 1 (800) 869-7028.

Missions Office staff: J.L. Drouhard, Erin Getchman, Kelly Hickman

“If we cultivate …. seeing others as our brothers and sisters, solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts.” (From Pope Benedict XVI’s final Lenten message)


Palm Sunday
Assisting our Neighbors
25% of contributions to CRS Rice Bowl remain in our archdiocese, helping to support local poverty and hunger alleviation programs through nearly 200 grants to food banks, St. Vincent de Paul conferences, Catholic Community Services, Pregnancy Aid and others. A list of grantees and application materials can be found at www.seattlearchdiocese.org/missions. This week, we pray for people in our own community who struggle with poverty and hunger. Give to your Rice Bowl to support programs that help the poor in our own community, as well as in communities around the world.

CRS Rice Bowl Collection Announcement #1
Thank you for participating in CRS Rice Bowl!
Our faith community helped make a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world suffering from poverty and hunger. To ensure that our donations will be put to use as soon as possible, please return your Rice Bowl by [DATE]. Please count the money in your Rice Bowls and make a check payable to [PARISH/SCHOOL NAME]. Please write “Rice Bowl” in the memo line of the check. Your contributions can be placed in [LOCATION]. Thank you for your generous support.

Easter Sunday
Alleluia!
During the past six weeks, our faith community has prayed, fasted and given alms with a special focus on the poorest members of our global community. Our lives were touched by stories from Burkina Faso, East Timor, Lesotho, Dominican Republic, Pakistan and the United States. Through our Lenten prayers and donations, we have touched the lives of millions of people served by Catholic Relief Services, our representative to the poorest communities in the world, and by you through nearly 200 grants made in western Washington with the 25% of our donations. Please return your Rice Bowl donation [PROVIDE INSTRUCTIONS]. Thank you for your generosity.

CRS Rice Bowl Collection Announcement #2
Thank you for your generosity through CRS Rice Bowl this year!
Our parish raised $[TOTAL] for Catholic Relief Services and our local hunger-fighting programs. Your participation in CRS Rice Bowl will continue to make a difference in the lives of those in need throughout the entire year. If you have not yet returned your contribution, you may still do so by [INSERT INSTRUCTIONS]. Thank you to all who have already returned your gifts.