Uncle Pete’s Sandwich Ministry brings hope amid Covid shutdown

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Pete Zonsius, a parishioner and long-time building and maintenance supervisor, “Uncle Pete” as he was affectionately called, with his niece, Sister Judith Zonsius, OSB. Even though Uncle Pete passed away in 2012, his legacy lives on bringing hope to people during the Covid shutdown and Sr. Judith continues to play an important role in the ministry. Photo courtesy of Benedictine Sisters of Chicago.

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Bags bring bright messages of hope along with nutritious food to the less fortunate through Uncle Pete’s Ministry Sack Dinners program.

Since 2010, Uncle Pete’s Ministry based at St. John Brebeuf in Niles has prepared its signature brown bag sack dinners and delivered them to homeless shelters on the west side of Chicago. Recently, the parish’s school students decorated bags at home in an effort to share messages of hope. The students and their family are frequent volunteers for the sack dinner program.

Despite the difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic, Uncle Pete’s sack dinners are being made and delivered. According to one volunteer, the biggest thing they have learned is that people want to help other people. And this program gives them a way to do that.

“Uncle Pete” Zonsius was a parishioner and long-time building and maintenance supervisor at St. John Brebeuf. He started out by making sack lunches and delivering them to individuals on the streets of Chicago's Westside in 2010. Over time, other people at St. John Brebeuf as well as other parishes, schools, and organizations got involved and the legacy of the ministry he began lives on.

In 2012—the year he died at the age of 90—4,100 lunches were distributed to hungry people in Chicagoland. By 2019, that number had jumped to 25,000. During the current shutdown, 4,200 lunches were distributed in April and volunteers hope to increase that number to 5,500 in May.

Ordinarily, an army of volunteers participate as items are prepared at home as well as at the parish. The dinners are distributed to more than 20 shelters, social service organizations, and not-for-profits serving the less fortunate in the West and Near North neighborhoods in Chicago. To comply with statewide stay-at-home orders during the Covid shutdown, the ministry is absorbing the cost of supplies, purchasing the items in bulk from vendors, and then the sacks are assembled by individual households.

“It is in the Gospel of John that Jesus refers to himself as ‘the light of the world’,” said Fr. Michael Meany, pastor of St. John Brebeuf. “This is just one way that we continue to bring that light to our world through these dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic even if we are prevented from physically being with each other.”

A community landmark since construction in 1964, St. John Brebeuf has been an integral part of Niles for the past 65 years. For more information about volunteering or to donate to Uncle Pete’s Ministry, please visit www.sjbrebeuf.org, or call 847-966-8145.