B ishop Chatard High School students expanded their reach recently by fanning out across Indianapolis to help those in need.

Every teacher in the school leads a service group of students who regularly volunteer in civic projects.

However, on Oct. 28, the groups, including every student in the school, went to about 50 locations citywide — spending the whole school day helping others in the school’s first Day of Service.

“We want to teach students how to take more ownership of service and use their own talents and gifts to help the needs of others,” said Tyler Mayer, director of campus ministry. “We did this during the school day to show that serving those in need is most important.”

The 650 students at the Northside Catholic school already are required to complete a number of service projects, but this was the first time administrators could remember every student working on one at the same time.

“Chatard students have a heart for service,” Mayer said. "We thought, ‘How do we push them to do more and teach them to be more effective?’ "

One group of students set up a Halloween party for adults with special needs in the Hollis Adams program at Hope Covenant Church. Another group made sack lunches and handed them out to homeless people Downtown. Others helped senior citizens clean their living space at Crestwood Village East.

Mayer hopes that the service day opened students’ eyes to the needs of others, gave them a bonding experience and made the day a little better for those they helped. He also wants to make the day of service an annual event.

“I like the sense of community that we all are sharing,” said Chatard freshman Amelia Siler, 14. “I hope it makes Indianapolis a better place, and I hope it brings people together.”

Amelia worked in the food pantry at New Wineskin Ministries, located in a Westside strip mall at 38th Street and Lafayette Road, where more than 200 people came on Oct. 28 to receive food and hygiene products from the Food Link program.

“We are unloading boxes and opening boxes at stations,” said freshman Elizabeth Bower, 14, during the event. “The girls set up food, and the boys are carrying out the boxes. They seem grateful that we’re here.”

Dick and Wynn Tinkham, who attends St. Luke Catholic Church on the Far Northside, started the Food Link program 25 years ago after attending a show at Beef&Boards Dinner Theatre and saw the leftover buffet food that would go to waste. Instead, they donated it to a shelter.

The program has grown over the years. Now Food Link has taken over space at New Wineskins, which used to be a retail store.

The nonprofit received a donated box truck, freezer and walk-in refrigerator, so it can accept more food from Gleaners Food Bank, Midwest Food Bank and Whole Foods and assist more people, Wynn Tinkham said.

“There is nothing better than getting these young kids to help,” she said. “I like to see them interact with the people in our lines.”

After the pantry lines dwindled, students helped spruce up the church by doing some outside work and painting.

The Rev. Mark Brown Sr. of New Wineskins said having Food Link come into the church was a “collaboration of heaven.” The church was struggling to keep up with the needs of its food pantry, and Food Link needed more space.

“We have to meet their natural needs, before we can meet their spiritual needs,” he said.