The local homeless shelter and organizations working to help those in need are serving up hot meals on Thanksgiving Day.
The HOME Resource Center will cook a holiday meal in their new kitchen, which was added earlier this year along with a laundry area and computer lab.
“It makes it very exciting,” said Christina Soto, shelter manager.
Staff and volunteers will be working in the kitchen to get food on the table, but the shelter is still in need of food donations. Soto said the shelter is also searching for sponsors for its Christmas Day meal and gifts to go under the tree at the Vault.
Chamberlain’s Youth Services is hosting its own dinner with house residents and staff. The nonprofit works with at-risk children and is based in Hollister.
Denise Cauthen Wright, fund development and donor engagement manager, told BenitoLink the organization had much of their holiday meal donated to them. Damm Good Water provided the H2O, and a Hollister resident who wished to remain anonymous supplied pies and whipped cream.
Sun Street Centers, which provides residential recovery services for women in downtown Hollister, will also be cooking up a dinner. Staff and residents will join forces to serve food at their house on Sixth Street.
My Father’s House, a daytime shelter for local homeless, will be open Thanksgiving Day to provide shelter and meals. Pastor Linda Lampe and volunteers spent the weekend before the holiday handing out sleeping bags and winter clothing.
Lampe expressed gratitude for donations from individuals and organizations such as San Benito High School and Sunnyslope Christian Center. She said that this time of year can be hard on those in need, as they may feel they have nothing to be thankful for. Going forward, she said she would like to set up an organized holiday schedule with other local groups so they are not all helping people on the same day, in order to provide more meals over a longer period of time.
The Sacred Heart & Saint Benedicts Parish Fishes and Loaves group will host an 11 a.m. meal for those in need at the Sacred Heart School gym, 520 College St., Hollister.
To help with these holiday celebrations, or with day-to-day food and clothing, call the numbers below.
Chamberlain’s Children’s Center: (831) 636-2121
Fishes and Loaves/Sacred Heart & St. Benedicts Parish: (831) 637-9212
HOME Resource Center: (831) 256-1852
My Father’s House: (831) 201-7775
Sun Street Centers: (831) 265-7317
