Frequently Asked Questions About the Food Fast Program

Fundraising

Does The Program Require Youth Groups to Raise Money For CRS?

You can raise awareness of hunger issues and money for Catholic Relief Services via the sponsor form or you can choose to just raise awareness. No matter what you decide to do, the materials are provided to you free of charge and there is no pressure from CRS to raise money.

Food Fast can be used as a fundraising program and a group has the option of sending the funds to CRS or to a local food bank (especially if they had visited the center during their retreat).

Where Do The Funds Raised Go? What Percent of the Monies Collected is Used by CRS in Providing Direct Aid, Food, Medicine, etc.?

The funds raised go to CRS' general fund and are usually allocated to overseas programs that most need assistance. Some groups have also indicated that they want to designate the funds raised to tsunami relief or to AIDS orphans, and CRS honors donor intent. If your group wants to designate the funds raised to a specific country or program then indicate it on the memo line of your check.

As a CRS program, 94% or more of the funds raised go to overseas programs/projects and 6% or less goes to administration and marketing. We try hard to be good stewards of people's donations as well as of our resources. This is the reason why we do not have many fancy giveaway or promotional items. This year we decided to use a fair trade cross from India as our giveaway item.

Can We Send Donations in Foreign Currency?

CRS only accepts checks in U.S. dollars. (If however, the money has already been raised and the person could not have it reissued in U.S. dollars then we can work with Donor Services to accept the check. Or if they are amenable to it then encourage them to donate the money to a local food shelter.)

How Do We Send Our Donations to CRS?

You can send your donations to:

Catholic Relief Services
Food Fast
P.O. Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090

We Have Been Sending Donations The Past Few Years But Have Not Received Any Acknowledgement?

Please provide the contact information including the name of the parish, school or individual, donation amount and how many years they have done a Food Fast so that we can track their donations.

Action Date

Is There an Action Date for Food Fast? Does It Have to Be Done On A Specific Weekend?

Food Fast can be worked into your schedule when it's going to be most effective for you! Do you want something to raise awareness at Thanksgiving? Do you want to fast in a special way during Lent? Whenever your youth program calendar needs a wonderful faith experience is the right time for Food Fast!

We, however, ask youth groups to email the date of their Food Fast to foodfast@crs.org so we can post them in theFast around the U.S.section of the Food Fast website. This will ensure that we include them in our prayer intentions. Other youth groups can also pray for and with participants as they prepare for and as they participate in their Food Fast.

Resources

What Kinds of Resources Does Food Fast Offer?

CRS offers free Food Fast Resources that you can order online or by calling 1-800-222-0025.

Coordinator's Manual

Each year CRS develops a Coordinator's Manual (in English and Spanish) that contains instructions on how to organize the Food Fast.

Food Fast is very user friendly — you don't have to write anything! It's all right there! The program includes icebreakers, learning opportunities, reflections, prayers, solid Catholic teaching — all you have to do is recruit your team, open the book, collect your materials, get your youth signed up and go!

Previous year's Coordinator's manuals are available for download.

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM of multimedia resources is also available. The CD-ROM contains PowerPoint and Flash presentations of selected prayer services and reflections, PDFs of the manual, Word files of activities, handouts and forms. The CD-ROM is bilingual.

Videos

Food Fast offers several free videos that can be used during the retreat or for follow-up activities.

Food Fast has a Promotional Video that can be used to promote the retreat to your youth group.

There are also three 15-20 minute educational videos that come with study guides.Positively Speaking focuses on HIV and AIDS in Africa. Speaking Our Peace talks about peacebuilding among youth in Rwanda. To Earn or Learn discusses child labor in India. A bilingual DVD collection of these three videos is now available.

Journey Against Hunger highlights CRS food programs in Niger. The DVD includes a printable discussion guide, photo essays, prayer meditation and ideas for additional activities on raising awareness on hunger and food security. It is available in English or Spanish.

What Resources Are Available Online?

All the Food Fast Coordinator's Manuals are available in PDF format online. There are also other activities such as Life as a Coffee Farmer that can be downloaded for use.

CD-ROM content is also available from each of the produced CD-ROMs.

The Current News section of the website also offers ideas for ways that youth can be engaged in current issues.

Does The Program Offer Solid Teaching to Help Young People Define and Articulate Their Catholic Identity?

Food Fast offers many ways for young people to articulate their Catholic Identity. Through various fun, learning, reflective and prayer activities, young people study Scripture and learn about Catholic social teaching. Food Fast is grounded in Catholic social teaching.

Does The Program Provide Solid Information Regarding Poverty In Developing Countries?

Food Fast offers solid information "from the field" — you learn about poverty in developing countries through the stories of people who live there. The resources are also created in such a way that they uphold the dignity of the poor and disadvantaged overseas more than just seeing them as objects of our charity.

How Can We Get the Music Suggested in the Coordinator's Manual?

The music suggested in various activities is mostly by Catholic musicians and many teens or other youth ministers in your area may have CDs of the music. Most of them can be downloaded for a small fee at www.itunes.com or can be purchased online through Oregon Catholic Press or GIA. If, however, you need further guidance or other music suggestions please email foodfast@crs.org .

Appropriate Age Group

What Age Group Can Participate In A Food Fast?

The Food Fast materials are developed for high school age youth, ages 13-18. However some groups have used Food Fast activities for middle school kids and called it a Junior Food Fast, scheduling a 12-hour Food Fast.

Do The Kids Need to Fast During The Retreat? This Is Difficult For Us Since Some of The Teens Face Eating Disorders.

If fasting becomes an issue you can always provide a simple meal of water and rice during the retreat or by cooking the recipes from the Operation Rice Bowl website.

We are aware that some teens face eating disorders. We do not encourage them to fast without consulting a physician or as one youth group has done, the person with eating disorder can be excused at certain points during the retreat so that he or she can eat a packed meal.

Giveaway Items

Why Are You Limiting The Number Of Giveaway Items That We Can Order To 20? Can We Order More?

We would like to practice good stewardship of our resources and also ensure that the giveaway items are used during a Food Fast and not for other activities.

If, however, you are organizing a Food Fast we can send you as many giveaway items as you need, just give us the number you need, your name, name of your school/parish, mailing address, email and date of your Food Fast. You can also email foodfast@crs.org for additional orders or if you have other questions.

What Do You Mean By Fair Trade?

The artisans who make fair trade crafts not only get a fair price for their product but also benefit from training and other development opportunities to better their lives and that of their families. For more information on fair trade, you can visit www.crsfairtrade.org .

Other Incentives

What Other 'Incentives' Do You Offer Youth Leaders And Young People To Attend Food Fast?

We offer the materials and usually a small souvenir/giveaway item free of charge. Our overhead is limited. Remember 94% of what is donated to CRS goes into direct aid! We also would like to promote a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity and good stewardship of resources.

© 2008 Catholic Relief Services | Contact Food Fast