Scrip is a rebate on the purchases we all make: Food, gas, and other everyday needs. Here is how it works:  You buy gift cards at face value and use them in the usual way. McDonell Area Catholic Schools (MACS) buys those cards from local merchants in volume and at a discount. MACS works with St. Charles and St. Peter by paying below face value, and the rest is profit split with the parishes or families.

For example, when you buy a $100 gift card, whose business gives back 10%, you pay $100 and you get $100 worth of produce. From your $100, MACS pays $90 to the business and $10 is Scrip profit split 50/50 with a parish or family.

If you donate that $5 Scrip profit to the parish, that is just exactly like putting a $5 bill in the collection basket. You didn't have to come up with that $5; in effect, it's a donation made by the business because of you! If you know you're going to shop there anyway, so why not take advantage of that $5 rebate?