Second-year Biology student, PTK scholar helps feed the homeless one sandwich at a time

11/26/2024

For 10 Sundays this past summer, 18-year-old Pawtucket, RI, native and Community College of Rhode Island student Lucas Johnson ventured to Kennedy Plaza in Providence with a cart full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches hoping to revive a family tradition that had been dormant since the pandemic.

Sandwich Party Sundays – an initiative launched by his father, a former restaurant owner, in 2019 – returned to the capital city for the first time in nearly five years as Johnson and friends dispersed more than 1,000 bagged lunches to the downtown homeless population between June and August.

A former dual-enrollment Running Start student and current Rhode Island Promise scholar and Biology major in his second year at CCRI, Johnson raised more than $1,700 via GoFundMe to purchase enough sandwich supplies, snacks, and bottled water to feed approximately 100 people per week.

The food hit the spot, but the relationships built along the way provided the true nourishment. Following a “life-changing” event as a high school junior that reshaped his outlook, Johnson began to focus more on his studies and developed a greater appreciation for things he had otherwise taken for granted – “a roof over my head or shoes on my feet,” he said.

“I didn’t like how I was living my life,” Johnson said, “so I decided the easiest way to change my life was to change my environment.”

Johnson, who had since moved from Pawtucket to Warwick and attended Pilgrim High School, yearned for a greater sense of community. He joined CCRI’s Running Start program, an opportunity for high school students to enroll in college courses during their senior year.

“Easily the best decision I ever made,” he said.

Through Running Start, Johnson discovered his passion for learning and is now enrolled full time in his third semester at CCRI as a first-generation student. The college experience has changed his life. Earlier this month, he joined his peers as a recent inductee into CCRI’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the prestigious national honor society for two-year colleges, and is also part of the Joint Admissions Agreement (JAA) program with the intent to transfer to the University of Rhode Island in the spring of 2026 to pursue a career in neuroscience.

After the “awakening” he experienced in high school, Johnson wanted to share his wisdom with others and begin building a better community. He remembered his father starting Sandwich Party Sundays when Johnson was a teenager but had little interest in helping while he was in high school. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing his family to close the café in 2020, Johnson saw an opportunity to revive the weekly tradition and spread love – and conversation – within the community.

Using $400 of his own money, Johnson officially relaunched Sandwich Party Sundays on June 2 with 50 sandwiches, all of which he made and delivered himself walking through Kennedy Plaza with a small pushcart. The lunch was merely a sliver of the experience; the real value for Johnson was sharing personal moments and conversations with those less fortunate, people down on their luck who benefitted as much from a warm handshake as they did from a free snack.

Johnson knew he needed financial assistance to sustain this project, so he launched an Instagram account to promote Sandwich Party Sundays and encourage others to join. Word spread quickly and soon family members, friends, and even local business owners began donating to help keep the party alive through August.

With money in tow, Johnson started each Sunday morning at Restaurant Depot purchasing the bread, peanut butter, and other items – everything from fresh fruit to granola bars –  before his team set up shop at Roger Williams Park to make the sandwiches and fill the lunch bags. Once they arrived in Providence and began handing out a few sandwiches, crowds gathered and the food went quickly. The conversations with locals have been therapeutic in many ways.

“We meet a lot of great people down there,” said Johnson, who plans to start up again this summer once the spring semester ends. “The food is really an icebreaker for me to be able to talk to these people, share knowledge, and spread love.

“The reason they’re in the position they’re in could be anything. Maybe it’s the environment they were brought up in, or maybe they weren’t given an opportunity to pick themselves back up. I want to give them the knowledge and opportunity to create a better life for themselves the way I did.

“Sometimes they just want someone to talk to. They’re often looked at as ‘less than’ by others, so sometimes I can just talk to them and speak from the heart and make them realize we’re all human. No one is more valuable than the person next to them. We’re all one at the end of the day.”

Through Sandwich Party Sundays, Johnson has learned as much about himself as the people have learned from him, and with the holiday season approaching, the many conversations and moments shared last summer are a much-needed reminder of what matters most in life.

“There was one guy I’d see every week,” Johnson recalled. “He was covered in scars and had marks on his body after surviving a house fire. He had lived such a tragic life. I’d playfully tell him, ‘I don’t want to see you here next week!’ and he’d say, ‘Why not? I’m enjoying my life.’ That’s such a great lesson. Everyone’s version of happiness is different, but the most important thing is to find and live with that happiness – no matter what that looks like to you.”

Share on Social Media