Lent Family Fast Day is on Friday 27th February. Your parish's support this Fast Day will help our neighbours grow enough food to eat.
Around the world – despite farmers’ best efforts – crops are failing and families are going hungry - but there is hope and there is a solution.
In South Sudan and Bangladesh, devastating floods are destroying farmland but - thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Catholic community at Fast Days - our local partners have been helping families to develop ingenious solutions like floating gardens that can grow food above floodwaters.
Shorai is a farmer and a father in Zimbabwe, where rain is scarce. With the help of our local experts, he has turned dry ground into fertile land by using drought-resistant crops and helping build a solar-powered water pump. He told us that: “A good neighbour is someone who can help me in periods of need.”
In God's eyes, we are one global family, called to be neighbours. Your parish's support this Family Fast Day will mean more of our neighbours can put food on the table.
5 ways your parish can get involved this Lent
1. Hold a Fast Day collection - Hand out our green Fast Day envelopes as people come into church and share CAFOD's Family Fast Day with your parish by putting up our Lent poster and reading our short talk at Mass. You'll be amazed by the difference your parish can make!
2. Big Lent Walk - As a parish or school, on your own or with friends, sign up to take part in the Big Lent Walk and walk 200km in 40 days to help fight global poverty.
3. Simple parish lunch - Come together as a parish community to share a simple lunch and raise vital funds for communities living in poverty around the world. Find recipes for simple soups, stews and curries for your parish lunch.
4. Pray with us - sign up to receive our for ways to give, act and pray with us this Lent.
5. NEW! Live Lent with CAFOD - share our Ash Wednesday poster and prayer cards with your parish with resources to help them Pray, Fast and Give with CAFOD this Lent.
Try our new virtual envelope
Try our new virtual envelope which allows you to make your Fast Day donation online and link it to your parish. Share the link cafod.org.uk/envelope in your parish newsletter or on social media so parishioners who no longer carry cash can still make their Fast Day donation.
We also have a new poster featuring a large QR code. Place them by entrances and exits to the church for parishioners to scan and they will be taken to the virtual envelope where they can make their Fast Day donation.
Live Lent with CAFOD
This Lent, we are inviting Catholics across England and Wales to Live Lent with us. Share our Ash Wednesday poster with your parish and hand out our Ash Wednesday bookmarks. You'll be inviting parishioners to visit our website for ways to Fast, Pray and Give this Lent as well as reflections on the spiritual significance of these three pillars of the season.
Fast Day resources for your parish
Visit the CAFOD shop to order posters, prayer cards and collection envelopes or you can download resources straight onto your computer below.
Fast Day resources to download
End of Mass announcement - Lent 2026
Parish newsletter announcements - Lent 2026
Prayers of intercession - Lent 2026
Parish poster - Lent 2026
Ash Wednesday poster - Lent 2026
Big Lent Walk Poster 2026
QR code poster - Lent 2026
Short talk (Polish) - Lent 2026
Parish poster (Welsh) - Lent 2026
Contactless for CAFOD
Make donating as easy as tapping a card by signing up for a contactless account with CAFOD. Order a card reader device now or give it a try first with the new 'Tap to Pay' function. You can be set up in minutes and start collecting donations straight away using just your phone!
Find out more by visiting our contactless webpage or get in touch with us at contactless@cafod.org.uk for additional questions and support.
Other ways your parish can get involved
Come together as a parish to raise money for CAFOD and you'll be supporting our work providing practical help to families living in poverty around the world.
Food Fundraiser
Share a simple lunch with friends and give as you fast
Fundraise for a World Gift
See the difference that your fundraising can make
Our A-Z of fundraising ideas
There are so many ways to fundraise for real change
Quiz night
Unleash your competitive streak with a quiz night
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Fundraising tools and advice
CAFOD online shop
Visit our online shop to order fundraising resources like posters, collection boxes and lanyards.
Sponsorship form
Download your form, complete your event and raise those funds for CAFOD!
How to fundraise for us
Follow our handy step-by-step guidance for planning, promoting and hosting your fundraising event.
How to pay in your fundraising
Advice on how to send us the donations you worked so hard to raise using our website, or by post, phone or bank transfer.
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Three ways to pay in your Fast Day collection
Send a signed cheque payable to 'CAFOD' to CAFOD, 55 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7JB.
Make sure to include your parish details and to mark it for 'Lent Family Fast Day' so we can send you a proper thank you. Please include any Gift Aid declarations and direct debit forms. You can use the Freepost envelope provided in your Fast Day pack.
Please don't send cash in the post – we don’t want your vital donations to get lost!
Please send personal cheques from parishioners as soon as possible.
Pay in your parish's collection using our online form. Once you have entered your card details and submitted, you will be asked to input your parish details.
Transfer your Family Fast Day collection to the account details below.
Account name: CAFOD
Account number: 11769410
Sort Code: 16-00-30
Bank: Royal Bank of Scotland
Please include your parish details as the payment reference and send an email to dpt@cafod.org.uk to confirm the amount, date of remittance and to mark it for Harvest Family Fast Day.