Who knew that something as simple as a sandwich could brighten someone’s day?

Lorena Osorio, a sophomore health sciences major, found this to be true when she gave a woman living on the streets a sack lunch. The woman responded by jumping for joy and thanking her profusely, which Osorio found to be touching. 

“That was the best experience because I saw the joy that something so small can bring to someone,” said Osorio.  

Osorio was able to have this experience because she is a member of En Christo, a club at Whitworth that prepares sack lunches and goes to downtown Spokane to distribute them to the houseless community.  

“En Christo’s overarching goal is to be the hands and feet of Jesus, spreading that love and connecting with those that society usually rejects,” said Osorio.  

En Christo makes around 100 sandwiches to give out every week, Osorio explained. Along with the sandwich, the lunches include a cookie, a banana and a Bible verse.  

Though the club meets every week, the number of people who attend can fluctuate. Isaiah Schmidt is a graduate assistant who started consistently attending En Christo in 2023.  

“It started as a product of my religion and turned into a part of my relationship with Jesus,” said Schmidt.  

Schmidt joined En Christo because he wanted to care for the people in the Spokane community who are more vulnerable and less fortunate than most, but he has learned that being a part of En Christo is much more.  

“God has shown to me, like this is my gift to you,” said Schmidt. “That you get to be here, that you get to do this, that you get to see my image in all these faces and places and things,” he said.

En Christo is not only a wonderful way to help members of the Spokane community, but it also brings together people in the Whitworth community.  

Maddy McCarthy is a sophomore who started coming to the En Christo meetings recently. “With Lent right now, I wanted to give back to the community,” said McCarthy. 

Cody Wheeler is a junior business management major who came to En Christo for the first time with some of his friends. “[My friend] told me we were going to make meals for the homeless,” said Wheeler. “I thought that was a really cool idea, and I had nothing else going on, I thought it’d be fun.” 

There was a mix of returning and new members, but everyone worked together in an assembly line to prepare the bags for the lunches, make the sandwiches and wrap up the cookies. “It is cool to see like everyone working together to help people in need,” said McCarthy. 

Giving out sandwiches isn’t the only thing En Christo does to support the community. They have their spring necessities drive where people will be able to donate toiletries and other basics in bins around campus. 

En Christo also has a flower fundraiser during graduation, which is where they get most of their funding to be able to do these amazing things, according to Osorio.  

“I’ve found En Christo to have made a significant impact on my life for the better,” said Schmidt, “and I believe that I’ve seen it do the same for people who receive what we have to share.”