Micronesian parishioners on the Big Island work to plant breadfruit as part of the “One Ohana: Food and Housing for All” program. With the help of the diocesan Office for Social Ministry, local community outreach groups and the Big Island’s HOPE Services Hawaii nonprofit organization which specializes in combating homelessness, the project has provided crops of the sustainable and nourishing Pacific Island staple to food banks and parish pantries for distribution to the needy. The planting work by parishioners from Hilo and Pahoa are spotlighted this year as a “Story of Hope” in the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl Lenten campaign. (All photos courtesy Office for Social Ministry)
A Big Island breadfruit planting project is spotlighted in the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl campaign
By Darlene J.M. Dela Cruz
Hawaii Catholic Herald
India. Zambia. El Salvador. Mexico. Ethiopia. Hawaii?
In this year’s Lenten Rice Bowl campaign, Catholic Relief Services is shining the spotlight on a grassroots outreach project on the Big Island among five other “Stories of Hope” from around the globe.
A group of Micronesian parishioners has been working with local community organizations to plant breadfruit trees in the Big Island town of Pahoa. This effort is part of the “One Ohana: Food and Housing for All” initiative, which seeks to provide sustainable and nourishing food, as well as support and solidarity, for Hawaii’s needy.
The breadfruit planting project has yielded not only a bounty of the Pacific Island starchy staple to share with food banks and parish pantries. It has provided an opportunity for members of the Micronesian community to rise above some of the challenges they face as immigrants to the Islands. The project is also a way for them to give back to others with their skills in agriculture and beautiful, rich culture.
“We see in this story — and in this work — our Gospel call to accompany and encounter those whom society has cast out,” said Eric Clayton, a program officer in the Programs and Resources — U.S. Operations department of Catholic Relief Services.
“We see how God is present in the movement of people, searching for better lives,” Clayton added. “We see the importance of good nutrition and of local expertise in providing healthy food. We see sustainability, solidarity. There was a lot to unpack in this story, this example, and we are excited to share it with the wider CRS Rice Bowl community.”
CRS Rice Bowl, which began 42 years ago as an informal fund-raiser in Pennsylvania to collect monetary aid for those affected by famine in Africa, has grown into an international Lenten tradition. This year, under the theme, “Encounter Lent,” the campaign continues to encourage Catholics to affect change through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Parishes will be distributing the trademark cardboard box “rice bowls” for monetary alms collections around the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, March 1.
The CRS Rice Bowl website, www.crsricebowl.org, features a wealth of resources for parishes, schools and families. There are photos and videos accompanying six Stories of Hope. Meatless Lenten recipes inspired by the countries whose community service is highlighted in the Stories of Hope are provided as well.
This year, the CRS Rice Bowl website in its coverage of Hawaii’s Story of Hope includes brief biographies on Molokai’s two saints, St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope.
A CRS Rice Bowl app, available for download on mobile devices, makes it easy for the faithful to learn more about global solidarity, and to see how Hawaii Catholics are getting involved in the cause.
‘One community at a time’
Seventy-five percent of the money raised by CRS Rice Bowl supports Catholic Relief Services’ international work. The remaining 25 percent stays in U.S. dioceses to help fund local programs fighting hunger and poverty.
The Diocese of Honolulu Office for Social Ministry oversees the use of CRS Rice Bowl monies disbursed for Hawaii. Among the projects funded by these proceeds is the One Ohana: Food and Housing for All Big Island breadfruit planting initiative.
Blessed Sacrament Father Robert Stark, Office for Social Ministry director, said having Hawaii featured in the CRS Rice Bowl campaign “provided the opportunity for 80 million Catholics around the world” to see how One Ohana: Food and Housing for All is growing “little by little, one hand, one family, one community at a time, but slowly making a real difference in our lives.”
One of the catalysts behind the breadfruit planting project is the vibrant Micaela. She migrated to Hawaii from Chuuk, one of the many tiny islands that comprise the Federated States of Micronesia, an archipelago in the South Pacific about 3,000 miles southwest of Hawaii.
She lives in Hilo and spends her time between St. Joseph Church in that town and Sacred Heart Church in nearby Pahoa. Micaela is a wife and mother of four children who works full-time at the local medical center, in addition to serving as a Micronesian interpreter in the court system, as well as doing part-time tutoring for at-risk high school students.
She is heavily involved with the Legion of Mary on the Big Island. The group is active in various community service efforts, such as visits to the homebound and collaborating with the Office for Social Ministry and HOPE Services Hawaii, a Catholic non-profit organization based on the Big Island that combats homelessness.
She mobilized several of her fellow Chuukese women and other parishioners after hearing of the initiative to plant breadfruit as an outreach project. With breadfruit as a traditional Micronesian staple, they were excited to be able to take part in a program that not only benefits their current Hawaii community, but also connects them to the planting practices and culture back home.
“It’s not only for the Chuukese,” Micaela told the Hawaii Catholic Herald. “It’s our way of giving back to the community at large. We remember how back home, everyone worked together as a community, as a family.”
Life can be rough for Micronesians in Hawaii. The U.S. government, in reparation for past nuclear testing in Micronesia, allows Micronesians to immigrate visa-free to the U.S. for health care, jobs or education. Micronesians, however, often face difficulties with poverty, cultural assimilation and other issues when they arrive here.
Micaela hopes she can continue to minister to her fellow Micronesians with projects like “One Ohana: Food and Housing for All.” A breast cancer survivor, she said her work is her “way for thanking the Lord for the blessings he has given me.”
“I was very shocked” to be selected as part of the CRS Rice Bowl Story of Hope, Micaela said. “I didn’t expect to be chosen. It makes me feel good knowing I helped someone each day.”
She credits the support of the Legion of Mary as well, a group in which “everyone helps each other out.”
