• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Women in Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine, cook food on a fire in a courtyard of an apartment building June 30, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of the country. (CNS photo/Alexander Ermochenko, Reuters)

Cross Catholic Outreach is helping feed Ukrainians, providing other aid

July 12, 2022
By Julie Asher
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Crisis in Ukraine, Feature, News, World News

WASHINGTON (CNS) — “We call ourselves the first suppliers of first responders,” said Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach.

Based in Boca Raton, Fla., the international Catholic charity has assisted the world’s most vulnerable people with $3.3 billion in total aid in more than 85 countries since its founding in 2001 by Cavnar and a small group of his colleagues.

Its disaster relief responses have included building safe homes following devastating earthquakes in Haiti in 2010 and 2021, hurricane relief in places such as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, and emergency food and medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach in Boca Raton, Fla., is seen in this undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Cross Catholic Outreach)

And since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the charity has been helping Ukrainian refugees, namely across the border in Poland, and those internally displaced in Ukraine.

Most recently, Cross Catholic Outreach provided a cash grant, which funded 816,480 meals destined for these Ukrainians.

According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, since the war began Feb. 24, more than 5.2 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, as of July 4; nearly 1.2 million are in Poland.

The agency estimates that 7.7 million people are internally displaced as a result of the conflict, which is equivalent to 17.5% of the entire population.

The meals funded by Cross Catholic Outreach were supplied in partnership with Feed My Starving Children, a Protestant organization based in Coons Rapids, Minnesota, and the biggest supplier of an enhanced rice meal called Vitafood, Cavnar told Catholic News Service.

The rice is enhanced with soy protein, vitamins, minerals, flavoring and dehydrated vegetables and has about 12 grams of protein per serving. A dry food, it can be transported easily and is prepared with boiling water by recipients.

This particular rice product is an excellent food that has been used in “situations of malnutrition”, but it also is very good for emergency situations, Cavnar explained. “It is fully nutritious and portable … and a good way to provide food that is economical.”

Cavnar said Cross Catholic Outreach also is collaborating with Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, to provide food, clothing, generators, ambulances and other relief to internally displaced families and refugees.

The cardinal has delivered two ambulances the charity helped purchase — and which the pope blessed: one was for a hospital in Kyiv and one was for a hospital in Lviv, Cavnar said.

Pope Francis has sent Cardinal Krajewski, who heads the Office of Papal Charities, and Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, interim president of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, as his envoys to bring relief, hope and encouragement to suffering Ukrainians.

Cross Catholic Outreach also is working with Caritas to provide internally displaced families with food, water, baby formula, blankets, and sanitary kits at three centers in Ukraine in Lutsk, Struga and Nowa Uszyca.

The charity is also helping the Archdiocese of Przemysl, Poland, near the Ukrainian border, to help refugees at its receiving centers, where they are offered food, shelter and trauma therapy, while local partners help families secure living arrangements, employment and school for the children.

Cavnar said Cross Catholic Outreach is receiving steady contributions for its efforts to help Ukrainians from its regular donors, “who know us and trust us,” as well as from people looking to support a Christian agency doing such work.

The charity is helping the world’s needy because it takes Christ’s command to do so seriously, he noted.

“We’re the church and Christ told us, ‘Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me.’ The church is doing what she always does — respond to those in need,” Cavnar said. 

Where it’s needed, “the church is there,” he added.


Editor’s Note: More information about Cross Catholic Outreach can be found online at https://crosscatholic.org.


Follow Asher on Twitter: @jlasher

Read More Crisis in Ukraine

Church leaders welcome move on Russian war crimes in Ukraine, decry abduction of Ukrainian children

Texas parishioners affected by Ukrainian war, a wildfire have relied on faith, community to survive turmoil

Pope, World Council of Churches’ leaders talk about war, divisions

Pope calls European bishops to be prophetic voices for peace

Pope asks Catholics to renew consecration of world to Mary every March 25

West Virginia parishes, people help Ukrainians find safe haven in Mountain State

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Julie Asher

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • ‘God showed up in a very powerful, powerful way’: Archdiocese of Hartford investigating possible eucharistic miracle
  • A miracle at a Sunday Mass in Connecticut
  • Fullerton Passion Walk a ‘deeply moving’ experience
  • Men urged to be on fire for faith at Catholic Men’s Fellowship of Maryland conference
  • Cathedral of Mary Our Queen to host world premiere of Passion setting

| Latest Local News |

Catholic group pushing for inclusive housing in city

Sulpician Father Louis Reitz dies at 93

Sister Regina Marie de l’Eucharistie Loftus dies at 86

| Latest World News |

As pope leaves hospital, he comforts couple, jokes with reporters

Hate crimes targeting religions on rise in Canada; crimes against Catholics increase 260 percent

Assisted suicide, euthanasia an ‘incredibly slippery slope’ in the West, says CUA panel

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • As pope leaves hospital, he comforts couple, jokes with reporters
  • Hate crimes targeting religions on rise in Canada; crimes against Catholics increase 260 percent
  • Assisted suicide, euthanasia an ‘incredibly slippery slope’ in the West, says CUA panel
  • Arrests made for ‘unruly conduct’ at Virginia university that disrupted pro-life meeting, injured student leader
  • Doctors say pope can be discharged from hospital
  • Pope visits pediatric oncology ward, baptizes infant
  • Movie Review: ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’
  • Catholic group pushing for inclusive housing in city
  • Additional charges filed in Vatican finance trial

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED