Paying It Forward with Operation Rice Bowl

For the fourth year in a row, The Visitor has sponsored a “Pay It Forward for Lent” contest — challenging groups within the St. Cloud Diocese to submit plans for how they would creatively “grow” $100 during the 40 days of Lent. The proceeds from their multiplied seed money are then given to a charity of their choice. With generous help from three donors who wanted to “pay it forward” before Lent even began, The Visitor funded five projects this year. (Nikki Rajala will feature the outcome of those endeavors in the April 13 issue of The Visitor newspaper.)

Photo by Sue Schulzetenberg-Gully

The Visitor staff has also initiated its own PIF project annually. This year, five diocesan directors agreed to prepare the Operation Rice Bowl recipes featured throughout Lent in the paper and on FFF for a luncheon last Friday at the Pastoral Center. Chris Codden (left), director of the Office of Marriage and Family brought Indian tehri; Rebecca Kurowski, director of Communications, prepared Vietnamese spring rolls; George Sjogren, director of Stewardship and Development cooked El Salvadoran casamiento; Janet Brinkman, director of Human Resources, made Zambian ifisashi and Linda Kaiser, Catholic Education Ministries director, served Malagasy vary amin’anana. Fairly traded coffee and tea and brownies and coconut cookies made from Equal Exchange baking cocoa rounded out the menu. A free-will offering was collected for ORB.

Besides sampling the authentic recipes from various countries, our guests from The Chancery, Pastoral Center and Mission Office had the opportunity to learn about the impact of ORB and other Catholic Relief Services programs as well as see and purchase unique fairly traded items.

CRS Fair Trade Ambassador Shelby Vaske spoke about ORB, Equal Exchange, Work of Human Hands and SERRV. Her wonderful table of handmade items and the Mission Office staffs’ equally delightful display presented fairly traded food products and handmade goods from all over the globe.

It was fun — entertaining and educational. Even the special reflections offered by Father Bill Vos, Catholic Relief Services Director for the diocese, set the tone for the day. And, though our event was fairly small and simple, it felt good to know we were making a difference through our support of CRS, who works 24/7 to alleviate suffering and provide assistance to our brothers and sisters in need in over 100 countries around the world. CJK