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It may take a village to raise a child, but it only takes a couple dozen students from Thomas Aquinas College (TAC), in California, to feed 1,000 people during Advent. This fine Catholic institution has a lot of good eggs in the class of ‘27, members of which led an effort that saw the local food bank bolstered by a thousand sandwiches.
A video of the event shows it as an exceptionally cheerful and selfless way to get into the spirit of giving, during this time of preparation for Christmas.
According to a press release, the great sandwich making session of 2024 came as a last minute affair, led by sophomores Luke Connelly and John Paul Deering. In a video interview, the two explained that they normally run a club that meets once a week to make BBQ. As the semester neared its end, however, they were faced with a major road block: their smoker was on the fritz.
Luke and Paul took a moment to explain what was happening in a video interview, featured above. Luke hadn’t even taken off his gloves, which were still covered in peanut butter as he spoke:
“This week, the smoker malfunctioned. We wanted to do something big for Advent, but we couldn’t with the smoker. So we had this idea to give back to the community and provide an opportunity to do a corporal work of mercy and serve Christ in the poor and in the hungry and not just in an intellectual way, but in a very tangible and real way."
As loud and cheerful as a school cafeteria, it’s almost hard to hear the two ringleaders as the crew making sandwiches behind them seem to be having a ball with the work. The TAC report notes that the students had fun chatting while making the sandwiches, with some of them even breaking into song.
Nora Downey, also from the class of ‘27, said that they just kept making sandwiches until they ran out of supplies, wrapping up some 1,200 PB&Js to deliver to the local food bank:
“With finals ahead of us, this is a great way to boost campus morale, and for a really good cause as well,” said Nora Downey.
Take a look at some of the photos of the event and see the satisfaction the students of TAC found in their good works.
