A SPECIAL THANKS to Kips Donuts. They donated dozens and dozens of donuts every week to our Soup Kitchen.
Soup Kitchen by Edwin Gonzales, Supervisor: Happy Fifth Sunday of Easter! Today, Jesus gives us a new commandment: Love One Another. What better way to demonstrate this love, than to feed our brothers and sisters. Our soup kitchen volunteers, with the support of the parishioners, follow this commandment admirably. The volunteers serve a daily average of 150 meals. During the last three months, we served 10,237 meals. The ministry and our parish are well respected in the Santa Fe Community. If you have a good soup recipe consisting of basic ingredients the Soup Kitchen might stock, please feel free to bring it to us to give more variety to our meals. In addition, volunteers are still needed, especially on Mondays and Fridays. We welcome Fr. Nathan back from his trip. We were lost without our shepherd. He worked very hard through Lent and Easter week, and his trip well deserved. We thank Robert Sanchez and Juan Salinas for the great job in re-doing the floors in Lamy Hall.
At our Soup Kitchen, we need volunteer help to cook, serve and visit with our guests on a daily basis. If you are able to give one hour or more a week, please call Pat Jennings or just drop in and lend a hand. The Soup Kitchen hours are 8:00am to 2:00pm, Monday thru Friday.
The Soup Kitchen - is a Parish Ministry operating totally on a model of true Christian stewardship. We receive no Government funding and are totally dependent on individuals, churches and small organizations to give of their time, treasure and talents to run this vital Ministry of our community.
The Soup Kitchen hours are Monday thru Friday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.
Our Menus - Contrary to our name, we do not serve much soup at the Soup Kitchen. The meals are made up of fresh fruit and salad vegetables, cooked mixed vegetables, pasta, bread, rice, potatoes and meat. We also have desserts and a choice of coffee, water or juice. On most days we serve about 250 meals. Sometimes as few as 180 or as many as 350 people will show up. This may sound like a lot of work but it really isn't as we all make a daily effort to work together and focus on our ministry to the poor. As individuals we are limited by our abilities, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, together we can accomplish any task with God's help.
Our Mission - Feeding the hungry is one of the Corporal Works of Mercy. Many of those who belong to our Soup Kitchen Community are very hungry, not for bread but for friendship, love or just for someone who cares and will listen to his or her stories. As we leave Mass every week our dismissal is this mandate: "Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord" our response: "Thanks be to God" does not mean we are glad Mass is over and anxious to be on our way! But rather agreement to accept our commissioning to Love and Serve the Lord. With Peace in our Hearts. Mass is not just an obligation but power and force for change individually and as a community. We can always use help at our parish Soup Kitchen prepping, cooking and cleaning. But also just visiting with everyone who is a part this vital ministry of our parish community. We are truly blessed to have the opportunity to serve the hungry at our Soup Kitchen and I encourage everyone to participate in vital ministry of our parish community in every way they can.
As our soup kitchen moves forward I feel we must address the shattered lives and horrible drug and alcohol addictions that we see on a daily basis. I don’t feel it is appropriate to enable our brothers and sisters in their self destructive behavior. As Pat Jennings says on a daily basis as he patrols our church grounds he feels our job is to make friends and have some positive influence over their troubled lives. It takes a tremendous amount of love and courage to tell someone who doesn’t care that we care and feel they should care also about themselves and the ramifications of the actions they take. With Christ as our role model and Eucharist as our nourishment, all of us can make a difference one person at a time.
"For we are His handswork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them". Ephessians 2:10.
We weren't placed on earth to take up space and live our lives as individuals. We are all part of a larger community and God fashioned each of us to make a unique contribution with our lives. God has a ministry for us in the church and a mission for us in the world.
Many have asked me how anyone can serve in our Soup Kitchen Ministry on a daily basis or even once in a while. Yes it is hard, we can not do it without help, without prayer. We have the Body of Christ in the form of the Eucharist. This strengthens us to serve the outcasts, disenfranchised, addicts and those broken in spirit. We receive Christ in the Eucharist and this gives us the strength to serve those who for whatever reason join our Soup Kitchen Community. It is not us, but Christ working through us that ministers to everyone who comes into our Parish Soup Kitchen.
The hunger we see everyday in our parish Soup Kitchen Ministry is not only for food and drink for the body, but for love, respect, dignity and a sense of belonging to a loving community.
Our Goals - Our goal as Christian Catholics is to share our love of God with everyone we come into contact with. We are fed with the body and blood of Christ at communion and are called to share Christ's gift to us with everyone we come into contact with, especially the un-loved and those who may not realize how much God loves them and cares for them. We are called to give love when we are treated with anger, give love when we are disrespected, give love when we receive hatred, and give love when we are misjudged.
I have prayerfully decided that we should have some goals in this vital ministry of our church. With hard work and persistence, I am confident that we can achieve them on a daily basis.
We are all called to make a difference by serving others. Whenever we serve others in anyway, we are actually serving God, fulfilling one of His purposes for creating us.