Every year, Mount Carmel’s freshman, sophomore, and junior classes each dedicate a full week to Christian service and experiential learning in a program called IMPACT Week. The goal of the program is to expose Mount Carmel students to the church’s teaching about social justice, and to engage them in direct service to those in need.

This year, the week of January 23 through January 27 has been designated as Sophomore IMPACT week.

For sophomores, the focus is the issues of hunger and poverty – locally, nationally, and throughout the world. This week, sophomores and their faculty moderators will contribute almost 2000 hours of direct service to various food pantries and soup kitchens that serve neighborhoods around Chicago, as well as learn about efforts to distribute food equitably to those in need across the globe through programs at larger organizations, like Feed My Starving Children.

Mr. Gregory Welch, the school’s Campus Minister, is in charge of the week’s events. As he wrapped up the  many details involved in organizing the program, he pointed to his goals for the week:

“I hope that the sophomores get an understanding that many people in the world are hungry and poor, and I hope that makes them want to make a difference,” Welch said.

Throughout the week, sophomore teachers – along with many non-teaching staff members – accompany the sophomores and volunteer side-by-side in whatever work needs to be done at the various sites.

Mr. Daniel Haggerty, one of the sophomore English teachers, stated, “I hope they walk away with a better understanding of what hunger looks like and the extent of food insecurity in the United States and throughout the world.”

Haggerty also expressed his hope that the sophomores “have a chance to consider their responsibility as Christians to respond to hunger.”

Many of last year’s sophomores, who visited many of the same sites, stated that they found IMPACT Week to be a great experience for them.

“I really liked when we went to Feed My Starving Children, because I was able to see the difference that we made after they showed how many people the food we packaged would feed,” noted current Junior Patrick McKay.

The school started the Impact Week program three years ago, just as Welch first started working Mount Carmel. Before the program was started, students had to complete a certain amount of service hours each year outside of school. For freshmen and sophomores, it was 20 hours, while juniors had to complete 40 hours.