Service

One element of our school mission is to guide our students to become dynamic members of our world community. A key component of this approach is to provide the link between Catholic social teaching and service. We integrate those teachings into the students’ daily lives through age-appropriate service projects within our school, parish and community.

Students share their time, talents, and treasures serving their community in a variety of ways such as helping people with disabilities, playing soccer with kids with disabilities, fighting hunger in Pierce County, and nurturing the indigent and the homeless. Our students serve many local organizations including:

L’Arche Tahoma Hope

Helping People With Disabilities

L’Arche is an international movement with a local organization in Tacoma. Its mission is “to make known the gifts of people with developmental disabilities, revealed through mutually transforming relationships; to foster an environment in community that responds to the changing needs of our members, while being faithful to the core values of our founding story; to engage in our diverse cultures, working together toward a more human society.” In Tacoma, L’Arche operates a farm and greenhouse.

St. Leo Food Connection

Fighting Hunger in Pierce County

The St. Leo Food Connection is a program of St. Leo Catholic Parish and has been fighting hunger in Pierce County for almost 30 years. Begun as a small neighborhood food bank in a garage in 1982, it now operates one of the largest food banks in Pierce County. 

Other programs include the Backpack Program that provides two days’ worth of healthy, kid-friendly food to more than 1200public school students every Friday throughout the school year, numerous Summer Meals sites that provide a sack lunch and snack to more than 750 children on weekdays throughout the summer.

Operation Keep ‘Em Warm & Fed

Nurturing the Indigent and Homeless

Sponsored by St. Leo Parish, Operation Keep ‘Em Warm and Fed is a St. Leo Parish  ministry providing blankets, food, coffee, and vitamins to the indigent, the homeless, and those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction in Tacoma’s inner city. Because of the pandemic, the need has grown and resources are more limited than ever. Operation Keep ‘Em Warm & Fed, [KEWAF] needs sandwiches that will be distributed to people experiencing homelessness and hunger. St. Patrick Catholic School has been involved in helping those in need for many years— bringing and serving food to the hungry on the street, by making sandwiches with students at school, and seasonally collecting warm clothing.

We look forward to that time when we will be able to safely continue doing these things in person, but for now, food distribution continues, thanks to a small group of dedicated people led by Michael and Dotti Krist-Sterbick. St. Patrick Catholic School has committed to supplying sandwiches twice a month. We invite families to sandwiches in their homes. Patty Davidson, our former art teacher, and current resource tutor will collect the sandwiches at school on the specified date and will take them to our neighbors in need for distribution.