Share The Journey: Our CRS Rice Bowl Project

Every year during Lent, Catholic schools around the country participate in Catholic Relief Services' (CRS) Rice Bowl Project to connect students to their mission and the stories of the people they serve around the world.

Providence Cristo Rey High School has an official relationship with Catholic Relief Services, as a Silver Level Global High School. The CRS Global High School program helps schools form internationally aware and globally responsive 21st century leaders who live their faith in solidarity with their brothers and sisters around the world.

Students and staff are invited to participate in daily almsgiving activities—for example, giving 25 cents for every faucet found in your home— which help students reflect on the realities of our brothers and sisters around the world and how they can be in solidarity during the Lenten season.

Students also learn more about the people their donations will benefit. Each week during Lent, PCR students watch a video, pray, read scripture, and learn about a different person in another part of the world.

In one lesson, students learn about Alefa, a mother, grandmother and farmer in Malawi. She provides for her three children, three grandchildren and husband by selling her crops. If they fail during one of Malawi’s rainy seasons—or in a drought—her family goes hungry.

One particularly difficult year, Alefa was forced to sell some of her land to make ends meet. She knew she had to start planting crops that could withstand Malawi’s changing climate. So, she attended a CRS-sponsored seed fair, where farmers learn the best crops to plant for the upcoming year, and receive vouchers so they can choose the seeds and supplies they need.