Five hundred Catholic middle school students from different schools came together to pack 100,000 meals in the past two days for needy children across the world as part of Pope Francis' Year of Mercy.

School hosts Notre Dame Academy in Minnetonka and All Saints Catholic School in Lakeville teamed up with Coon Rapids-based Feed My Starving Children, a Christian non-profit, to pack meals for children.

The meals include a day's worth of nutrients and were invented by a retired 3M executive in Minnesota.

The non-profit's MobilePack event lets kids pack the meals by pouring ingredients, which could include soy, rice, dehydrated vegetables and vitamins. In 2014, nearly 250,000 volunteers packed about 63 million meals, according to Feed My Starving Children's website.

Notre Dame Academy hosted two packing shifts on Thursday and All Saints Catholic School hosted two shifts Friday.

Pope Francis announced the holy year last year, and it will continue until November.

All Saints Catholic School principal Carol Margarit said that the event was a great opportunity for students to understand the Pope's mission for the year in helping those that are less fortunate while getting to know students at different Catholic schools.

"Hopefully, it'll have an effect on them when they realize, 'I can do something to make a difference,'" Margarit said.