Nothing is more uplifting than seeing the smiling face of a hungry child receiving a nutritious meal, or a mother with tears of joy in her eyes because she knows she’ll be able to feed her family with the bag of food staples she just received.

During a recent trip to Guatemala and Honduras, a couple of our staff members were able to capture some moments like these with photos. Below are a few of the many grateful faces they saw while visiting feeding programs we support in Central America.

We are able to feed needy people such as these because of the continuing support of American Catholics. Click here to learn more about the feeding programs we support around the world and how you can help.

There is an old saying that goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The second part of that saying is the goal of much of the work we do to help the poor here at Cross Catholic.

However, during staff devotions this morning we were reminded of how important the first part is, as well. Our newest projects officer recently returned from Belize. It was his first time visiting the projects we support there, and he was struck by the impact of the elderly feeding programs — those meeting an immediate need rather than supporting development.

“These programs provide palliative care to deal with the effects of poverty. As we minister to the more immediate needs of these people, we are expressing the love of Christ in a very real way,” he explained. “Yes, it is important to teach people how to fish, so to speak, but what about the people who are too old or sick or unable to learn how to fish? Should we just forget about them?”

It is clear from Matthew 18:14 — “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” — that every person is important to God.

Giving an elderly woman a daily meal is just as meaningful in God’s eyes as supporting a scholarship or microenterprise program. Both are meeting important needs of the poor and, in the process, exposing them to Christ.

Click here to learn more about what Cross Catholic is doing to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of the poor in Latin America.

Our project officers must travel to incredibly remote places to reach some of the projects we support—but they’re well worth the effort. For instance, Claudio, who covers Latin American projects, describes his recent journey to a boarding school in the mountains of Arequipa, Peru. After a long flight, he rode a crowded bus for 12 hours until it literally reached the end of the road.

A happy student at Home of the Incarnate Word boarding school in the remote mountains of Peru, enjoys a hearty meal sponsored by Cross International Catholic Outreach.

Even though the trip to get there was exhausting, Claudio says Home of the Incarnate Word is one of his most favorite projects to visit. The children there exude the joy of the Lord. Besides, their families live even farther away. The children must walk anywhere from several hours to several days to get home. If it weren’t for this boarding school, they would not have an education, and the chance to better their lives.

Likewise, if it weren’t for an aqueduct construction project deep in the forest of rural Dominican Republic, nearly 900 people would not get the chance to have water. For a long time, they couldn’t find anyone to fund the project because it’s too remote. But Cross Catholic did. So Claudio drives several hours across the country to even get to the region. Then the trip to the water project begins—first by 4WD truck, then by mule, then finally on foot.

The trek is daunting. But just think…women and children must make a similar journey every day, sometimes several times a day, just to fetch water for their families—and even then, it’s not always drinkable. This remote project is worth the trip because it will eventually bring clean, safe water directly to their villages instead.