Helping Hands: Gainesville Students support CRS programs in West Africa
April 8, 2015 • Diocese of St. Augustine

The St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center in Gainesville is hosting a Helping Hands food-packaging event on Saturday, April 11. The event, in support of a special collaboration between Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Stop Hunger Now, will bring together local volunteers to package more than 10,000 meals and to provide funds to buy CRS food, support, job training and community development programs in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.

BurkinaFaso_001CRS is the U.S. Bishop’s official agency for overseas relief and development projects and outreach worldwide. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel region of Africa. With most of the economy engaged in agriculture, especially cotton, Burkina Faso’s economy is highly susceptible to fluctuations in world commodity prices and natural disasters.

According to CRS, since most farmers there engage in subsistence farming, recurring prolonged droughts and severe floods have led to widespread and chronic food shortages. Low levels of education, gender inequality, and the persistence of preventable diseases and malnutrition compromise the country’s ability to meet its basic needs.

In addition to the CRS event, the St. Augustine Church and Student Center volunteers have since August provided some 150 home-cooked meals every Monday at Grace Marketplace, Gainesville’s one-stop help center for the homeless, according to Bill and Maureen NesSmith, service program coordinators for the parish. Volunteers will continue the program through May, when Grace Marketplace hopes to have an operational kitchen. For information about Help Hands, visit: www.helpinghands.crs.org. Or call the student center at (352) 372-3533.

[cs_button href=”https://www.dosafl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/burkina-faso-people-of-integrity-poster-helping-hands.pdf” icon=”fa-cloud-download” type=”flat” shape=”rounded” size=”md” color=”accent” no_uppercase=”1″ bgcolor=”#a31636″ bghovercolor=”#a3445a” textcolor=”#ffffff” texthovercolor=”#ffffff”]Download Fact Sheet on Burkina Faso[/cs_button]