For awhile it looked like the Pueblo Soup Kitchen was going to be the latest victim of The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving. But, like so many holiday movies, this one had a happy ending. The cavalry, played this time around by the city’s Care and Share program, rode in with a truckload of turkeys and saved the day.
“Thank God for Care and Share,” said the Kitchen’s Helen Benavidez. “I was a little panicked because we had not received any turkeys.” The Pueblo-based Care and Share serves as a helping hand across southern Colorado with food for places like the Soup Kitchen and others dealing with hunger and food insecurity. Care and Share is oxygen this time of year to the Soup Kitchen and others who depend on food donations.
Benavidez, the kitchen’s director, and her staff of three provide a small breakfast—donuts and coffee—and a lunch meal each day for “200-250” men, women and families in Pueblo. But, she said, with inflation putting the squeeze on the nation and much of the world, getting donations has become a full-time job. Holiday meals, as attested by her recent holiday high anxiety, make for an even bigger challenge.
Despite the donation of turkeys, the Soup Kitchen is still running a bit short for all the holiday meal fixings. “I have to buy a few more things,” she said. But stuffing won’t be on the list. Care and Share, and local good Samaritan Roger Giordano, “pulled us through.” Paper plates and plastic dinnerware are a different story. Those, Benavidez will have to buy.
Benavidez remains confident things are going to work out this time. But after this big meal, she knows there will be a couple of similar undertakings before year’s end. Getting enough food for a Christmas and New Year’s meal are already creating angst.
The Soup Kitchen, located at 422 W. 7th Street, has been serving meals in Pueblo since 1976. But, Benavidez says, the faces of those coming by have changed in recent years. No longer are those lining up in the morning or for the midday meal a collection of just men, she said. “We see people who are living in their vehicles, people who are couch surfing…the need has gotten more and more severe.” Single women and a growing number of families are now regulars when the doors open.
Growing up in Pueblo in a family of modest means, Benavidez said she can see her long ago self in the faces of some of the children who come with their families. “They’re the ones who really break my heart,” she said, pausing to compose herself. “Some of these people are at wit’s end.” That is why, she added, everyone who comes through the doors is always welcome. Even those who sometimes create a bit of trouble.
While it may happen infrequently, it does happen. When it does, punishment for the offending man or woman is a couple of days of ‘time out.’ They’re asked to leave. A few days of cooling off is most often the penalty for bad behavior, before they’re allowed to return. What doesn’t fly at the facility, said Benavidez, is someone showing up “high or drunk or being disrespectful.”
Benavidez and her staff of three count on volunteers, oftentimes retired men and women, to meet the needs of the kitchen. For the Thanksgiving meal, which will be served one day ahead of the holiday in order to give staff the day off, employees of Ent and Security Service Federal Credit Unions will be volunteering to serve and help with the cleanup.
Benavidez and her operation have been through tough times before. The pandemic put the kitchen and everyone else through more than just a rough patch. So, a little inflation, while certainly trying, she said, will pass. For now, and through Wednesday morning, everyone at the Soup Kitchen’s got a job to do. And because Thanksgiving is one of the year’s biggest meals, preparations are already underway.
Staff and volunteers each have an assignment. There’s a ‘pie squad,’ a group dedicated to cooking the meal’s centerpiece—the birds—and Benavidez has a crew preparing side dishes. The place will be buzzing until the last meal is served and the kitchen is cleaned and ready to open again on Friday morning. Only then will everyone finally sit down and ‘take five,’ have a bite, a little conversation and lock up.
