St. Francis students deliver food to the needy

It started last October, when St. Francis High School students were invited to accompany Joliet Catholic Academy students in a service project to feed the hungry.

Since then, students from the Wheaton school have made six additional trips to Catholic Charities in Chicago to distribute food to those in need.

Catholic Charities provides meals to the needy Monday through Friday each week, but not on the weekends. So, once a month for six months between November and April, roughly 20 students and a faculty member came together at St. Francis to cook and prepare Saturday lunch bags with hot dogs, fruit, chips, water and cookies, all donated by the school community.

Then they packed up the food, loaded the school van and traveled into the city to Catholic Charities on LaSalle Street where they distributed the food.

In total, about 100 students and six faculty members were involved with this project and each trip provided between 100 to 200 lunches.

On one trip, the students divided the food between Catholic Charities and the Pacific Garden Mission, a homeless shelter in the South Loop.

"It was amazing. There were so many people in need, and to watch our students' compassion and generosity was quite touching," said Mari Myers, Spanish language teacher.

"Every day we walk around people who are hungry or homeless and many feel awkward or too busy to help, so they often walk right past these needy people," said Junior Lauren Fritz, who participated in the April project. "This trip provided a solution for this problem."

"It was a great hands-on service trip," said Claire Angus, a junior, "and I was happy to help provide a solid meal for all the people who came in."