Students at St. Ferdinand School took time out from their classes on Jan. 27 to make 300 packed lunches to feed people in Chicago over the next 24 hours.

The school, 3131 N. Mason Ave., worked with Uncle Pete’s Ministry to make the lunches as part of a Catholic Schools Week activity. Each day usually has different themed activities, and at many schools, one of those days is usually rooted in service to the community, said St. Ferdinand Principal Erin Boyle Foligno.

“We always try to do something to help others around us,” Foligno said, noting that in addition to spending the morning making sandwiches and packing lunches, students bought bracelets to raise money both for Uncle Pete’s and for the International Red Cross to put towards fire relief efforts in California.

The project started with students decorating large lunch bags with messages of love and hope in their religion classes, she said. On the morning of the project, eighth-graders got the service project rolling by making 600 sandwiches and packaging them two to a sandwich bag. Then the rest of the students joined them to pack lunch bags with water, apples, sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, chips and Oreo cookies.

Carolyn Murphy from Uncle Pete’s Ministry instructed students — working in pairs with older students buddied up with younger students — to be careful and make sure not to miss anything or double up anything.

“How would you feel if they were passing out bags and your friend got Oreos and you didn’t?” she asked. “Sad, right?”

When the packing was done, St. Ferdinand Parish pastor Father Peter Gnoinski blessed the food and the students.

Gnoinski told the students that he actually knew the late “Uncle Pete” Zonsius when he was a seminarian assigned to St. John Brebeuf Parish in Niles, where Zonsius did building maintenance, and, already, worked to connect people who had extra with people who were in need.

“Since he was Pete, and I was Peter, he would say, ‘I am Pete and you are re-Pete,’” Gnoinski told the children. “And now we repeat all the good works and the works of charity that he did.”

Murphy also first got involved with the ministry as a parishioner at St. John Brebeuf, making sandwiches for Uncle Pete to deliver to those who needed them.

The ministry now works with parishes, schools and other groups to provide packed lunches to social service organizations and others mostly on the West Side. The lunches packed by the St. Ferdinand students were destined for the food pantry at Jesus, Bread of Life Parish in Logan Square; Deborah’s Place, a transitional housing provider for women who have been homeless; Franciscan Outreach day center; and Covenant House, a shelter for homeless young people aged 18 to 24.

Murphy told the students that when they packed the bags with all of the food items on the menu, they also included love and care for the people who were to receive them.

“You can think to yourself, ‘What did I do today?’” she said. “‘I helped someone out. I showed care to someone. I fed someone.’”