Snowy days in the mountains are lovely if you have a warm home and food in the fridge. But New Mexico has one of the highest rates of households in extreme poverty -- those with income below 50 percent of the federal poverty level -- according to a recent study by Southern Education Foundation. More than half of all children in Santa Fe Public Schools come from homes living in extreme or merely "regular" poverty. These children show up at school with exceptional needs that interfere with their ability to learn, socialize and grow.

The following Santa Fe lunch kitchens and food pantries provide groceries and hot meals to families and individuals. Thank you for doing whatever you can to help others in New Mexico this winter and throughout the year, and for sharing this list with those who need assistance.

Bag ‘n Hand Pantry at St. John’s United Methodist Church
1200 Old Pecos Trail (corner of Cordova Road)
Santa Fe, NM 87505

What they offer: Food every Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to noon; recipients may come only once a week.
What they need: Volunteers and donations of food and money.
For more information: Paul D’Arcy, 982-5397

Bienvenidos
1511 Fifth Street
Santa Fe, NM 87505

What they offer: Sack lunches to the homeless, Mondays 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Boxes of groceries, Mondays 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; Wednesdays and Thursdays 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
What they need: Food donations, money (even small amounts go a long way), clothing and household items. Volunteers are needed to help pack lunch bags and food boxes, especially Wednesdays and Thursdays.
For more information: Susan Tarver, 986-0583.

Food for Santa Fe
1222 Siler Road
Santa Fe, NM 87507

What they offer: Bags of groceries and kids’ snacks, Thursdays 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. or until supplies run out. No forms to fill out; no questions asked. Drive-thru is at the rear left of the front building.
What they need: Donations of food, especially 18 oz. jars of peanut butter, and paper grocery sacks. Volunteers are needed Wednesdays beginning at 6 a.m. to fill bags with nonperishables, and on Thursdays at 6 a.m. to add perishable produce and distribute bags.
For more information: foodforsantafe@gmail.com, www.foodforsantafe.org

Salvation Army
525 W. Alameda
Santa Fe, NM 87501

What they offer: Breakfast Monday through Friday at 8 a.m.; dinner Monday through Friday at 5 p.m.
What they need: Food, clothing (especially children’s), household items.
For more information: Miguel Gallegos or Lt. Joseph Cisneros, 988-8054

St. John’s Lunch Kitchen
1301 Osage Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87505

What they offer: Lunch is served Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30 a.m.
What they need: Sliced lunchmeat, bags of chips, cases of bottled water and cups of applesauce, fruit or pudding.
For more information: Deacon Jerry Reynolds, 983-5034 ext. 5.

- compiled by Nina Bunker Ruiz

 

It was a cold and windy morning in December. It was trying to snow, and I shivered in my long wool coat as I walked up to the door at St. John’s lunch kitchen, not knowing what to expect. I have seen homeless people pushing shopping carts with all their worldly belongings. I have stepped around them while they slept curled up in a doorway of a building. I have seen them standing on street corners in their tattered clothing holding signs saying they would work for food. I would look away because they made me feel sad and uncomfortable. But on that morning, I was standing in their midst.

A few weeks before, I had attended a “BeFriender Ministry” in Albuquerque, which teaches active listening and support techniques for people to use in their church and personal life. One of the other participants, Father Nathan Libaire, told me he was the parish priest for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Santa Fe and invited me to see their lunch kitchen. Father Nathan is a man with a gregarious personality and an evident love for people — all people. So although I am not Catholic, and had never worked with homeless people, I drove to Santa Fe on that chilly December morning with my husband, Richard, to check it out.

As we arrived we were greeted by Father Nathan and the Monday morning team, which was busy preparing sandwiches. We were immediately welcomed and put to work. There didn’t seem to be a boss; everyone just knew what needed to be done, preparing sandwiches in an assembly line, stuffing plastic bags with chips, folding the lunch bags after they were filled. Most of the other volunteers were St. John’s Church members, but no one was proprietary about their job or acted as if we were outsiders in “their” church. They just told us what was needed and we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. It was truly a joyous occasion in that kitchen.

In the short time between when we finished and when the guests arrived, we sat at their tables and drank hot coffee. Willie had brought doughnuts for the team. Andy and Richard talked football. We were joined by Deacon Jerry Reynolds, a warm-hearted man who takes caring seriously, and who leads the Caring Ministries at St. John’s. Soon the first guest arrived and then the next and the next. Each one took a bagged lunch, a drink and a bowl of steaming chicken and rice soup, chockfull of peas and carrots, made by Father Nathan and his mother. I positioned myself by the soup pot to help anyone who needed assistance getting to the table and then went around the tables offering crackers.

On any given Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, approximately 60 guests arrive for lunch. I don’t know where they all come from or where they live. What I do know is that I have never seen people so polite, grateful and gracious. One of the team recognized one of the guests on that Monday morning and went up to greet him. The man had owned his own restaurant in Santa Fe for many years but it had recently gone out of business and he was now in line to get food. A couple came in with a teenage girl, an infant and a little boy around 6 years old, who had the saddest face I’ve ever seen. I cannot get that precious little face out of my mind.

Even after the weather warms, the homeless will be coming to St. John’s Lunch Kitchen and other places that offer a meal. There is truly no season for homelessness. Years ago, when I was studying to be a social worker, I learned that the average American would have only three months after losing their job because of a layoff or illness before they would deplete their savings or max their credit cards and lose their home. We are all closer to homelessness than we think, especially in this economy.

I returned to St. John’s Lunch Kitchen to volunteer with my husband, and we will go back again this winter. Each time we leave we walk away feeling that we have helped provided nourishment to those in need and that we made a difference in someone’s day — and we count our blessings.

Gloria Fournier Valdez lives in Albuquerque with her husband Richard.