A line of small children wound it’s way from behind St. John’s Catholic School down Union Street to the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program facility — little fingers wrapping around cans and boxes of pasta, and grasping at toothbrushes to hand them off to the next student in line.

The human chain of students passed the food and personal care items all the way down the line during the school’s second annual food walk which benefits MCHPP by helping stock its food pantry. This added more than 600 items of food, donated by members of the school community. The school surpassed its goal of 500 pounds by nearly 100 pounds.

“The students, through this and countless other service projects during the year, are truly living their faith,” said a press release from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

Each grade at St. John’s undertakes a community service project every school year and the first graders every year visit MCHPP to learn about food distribution, its backpack program, and collects food for the food pantry.

On Wednesday, student council officers helped supervise operations as the whole student body got involved by passing items that were collected from student to student.

Teacher Rachel Johns, advisor of the student council, said allowing those officers to act as supervisors stationed along the human chain let them serve as role models. As children passed along the items of food and personal care items, Johns said, they really understood just how many items the school collects.

“I see kids looking at what they’re passing and it gives them that opportunity to think, whether it’s ‘Oh hey, I buy this stuff,” she said, “or think about what they’d use the food for to make a good meal, and think about why people would need shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste or diapers.

“It’s good for us to grab hold of that opportunity and make it a teachable moment to say, ‘OK, lets look at the price of a box of diapers, How much is that? How much is toothpaste?’” Johns added. “It’s by your sink — it’s always there — but someone has to buy it.”

Nolan Doherty, 14, is in eighth grade and is president of the student council. Implementation of the council a couple years ago has been a positive thing and allows students to have a little more say.

Doherty said the school has color teams for field day and the student council helps come up with service projects throughout the year that students can do to help their color team. For this event, the color team that brought in the most food got points for field day.

“I think this is just a great opportunity for not only us but everyone else because maybe they can follow an example of us and maybe do the same thing themselves,” Doherty said. “Maybe we could expand on this next year.”

“The chain and all of their service efforts solidify that understanding of helping those in need, especially our neighbors,” said Patricia Berthiaume, principal at St. John’s Catholic School, in the release. “This is God’s work and it reminds our students that we are serving God when we serve one another.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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