By Sister Jackie Griffith, SSJ, Director of Catholic Social Services.

The signs of the times have an urgency about them. Folks are out of work, losing their homes and hungry. At Saint Theresa Parish in Cordele, Father Bob Cushing reports that all the food collected in November and December went out immediately leaving the cupboard bare for January. Sister Mary Bordelon at Holy Family Parish in Metter and Sister Nuala Mulleady at Saint Boniface in Springfield were grateful for the monies sent to them from the diocesan portion of Operation Rice Bowl to help feed families out of work in that area of the diocese. Bertha Capetillo, pastoral assistant at Saint Paul’s in Douglas, relies on Operation Rice Bowl funding for rice and beans for the people she serves. At Saint Clare’s Center in Albany and the Social Apostolate in Savannah, Franciscan Sisters Maura Malloy and Pauline O’Brien have seen their numbers climb to almost double in their respective soup kitchens. At Neighbors in Need in Albany, Hosea Bennett and Tina Appollonio fill bags of food four days a week for families who are hungry.

A recent memo to the parishes sent by the Office of Catholic Social Services promotes collecting non-perishable foods every Sunday at every Eucharist, a practice currently underway at Resurrection of Our Lord Church in Savannah. Father Robert Chaney, the pastor remarks that bringing food every Sunday at every Liturgy connects the Eucharist and the parishioners to the hungry people in the community. He says that bringing food to Church helps make the Gospel come alive in the lives of people who have more and helps to make people more mindful of people who have much less. The Saint Vincent de Paul Society at Blessed Sacrament Church in Savannah stepped up its food collection and distribution, and is serving several outreach centers with canned food in its area while Sacred Heart Church in Warner Robins supplements its Christian Service Center with food bags collected from parishioners on a quarterly basis. Saint Joseph Church in Macon has organized a Lenten food collection drive that includes contributions towards gift certificates from Kroger which will allow families to purchase perishable and other much needed items. Six area organizations will benefit from the generosity of Saint Joseph’s parishioners.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been on the cutting edge of the global food crisis. According to reports and tables on their Web site (CRS.org), the global food crisis is a “crisis of high food costs and lack of availability. It disproportionately affects poor people and families who spend a high percentage of their limited income on food.” CRS reports that we in the U.S. spend about 15% on food while people in the developing countries spend from 50-70% on food. Presently about 860 million people in the world are hungry (CRS) and the United Nations estimates that “the number of people suffering from chronic hunger could increase to 1.2 billion by 2015 if the current global food crisis continues” (CRS).

Globally, CRS states that 30 countries have had riots and violent protests due to food and that about 37 countries have been affected in some way from the food crisis. In an executive summary entitled, “CRS Response to the Global Food Price Crisis,” an analysis of the drives and causes of the food price crisis is spelled out with a detailed plan for response from CRS. The table in the first column lists the major causes. (For more details see the CRS Web site). The National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC) in its quarterly magazine, Fall issue 2008, entitled “World Food Crisis: What Must We Do” explores the impact of the crisis in rural communities around the world and shows a map of the world depicting the percentage of people undernourished throughout the world (see above). The NCRLC and CRS invite us to reflect on this crisis through the lens of the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching. They call us to the Catholic Social Teaching principles of protecting life and human dignity, solidarity with people who are poor and a concern for the global common good. They bid us to recall the words of Pope Benedict XVI at the World Food Security Summit in Rome, “If you do not feed someone who is dying of hunger, you have killed him.”

Operation Rice Bowl (ORB) is an excellent response to the global food crisis. This Lenten program of praying, fasting, learning and giving can be practiced in the parish, religious education class, schools and families. An abundance of materials are on the Web site (http://orb.crs.org) and parishes can request the ORB packet with bowls, calendars and guide books. The CD ROM has videos, virtual tours and the Stations of the Cross. Youth are attracted to the Food Fast (www.foodfast.org) and the Hunger Banquet on the CRS Web site.

Giving to the ORB ensures that our diocese will have money to distribute locally as 25% of the monies collected during Lent remains here for the needs of hungry people. Just ask Sister Bordelon or Sister Mulleady or Father Cushing. They can tell you that ORB helps them and us respond to the Gospel message, “When did we see you hungry?” Please pray, fast, learn and give generously this Lenten season.Sister Jackie Griffith, ssj, is Director of Catholic Social Services for the Diocese of Savannah.