Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and a local food program gave thousands of Thanksgiving meals to families in need.
An estimated 7,000 Thanksgiving meals were given to families as part of Casa de Peregrino's Hope for the Holidays campaign. The campaign is put on in collaboration with Casa De Peregrinos and Nusenda Credit Union. Lorenzo Alba Jr. Is the executive director at Casa De Peregrinos.
“We’ve been doing this for 20 years and it is our way of giving back to the community during the holidays, especially cause it’s so difficult for so many families that are going through food insecurity in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County,” Alba said.
Stephanie Wagner was there for Nusenda and she mentioned that this collaboration shows the power of giving back.
“So, you’ll see a bunch of our team members that came out early this morning to be here, part of the community. And I think seeing all of these families being out of here is so incredible and being able to work with this organization is powerful. We like to say that’s the power of we in action and this work truly is that,” Wagner said.
There were many volunteers including Shawn Ollis. He was impacted by seeing the need in the community but also by the kindness of the other volunteers.
“From a personal perspective, volunteerism and being out here, it gives back to me more than we can give back to them. It's just really fulfilling to be out here,” Ollis said.
We spoke to people who received a meal, one of them was Estella Garcia. She said that this year there was no way she was going to be able to provide a turkey for her family and receiving it here was a relief.
“It gave us a relief, yes. We'll be happy we’ll have a nice dinner. I just want to say thank you to everybody that put some of their time to come and help and distribute them,” Garcia said.
Dora Williams was one of the people in line to receive a meal. Here is what she had to say when asked about why she was there.
“Right now, with the holidays, everybody coming to visit it helps a lot. Thank God that they’re here for us,” Williams said.
Joseph Berumen was in as well, and he mentioned how much his family loves Thanksgiving and cooking.
“It's a little hard to get the turkey but they're really helpful and it means a lot to us,” Berumen said.
Sisters, Luz and Refugio Tarango were in line when we spoke to them. And they told us how thankful they were to receive a meal.
“A blessing for us because some people can't afford it and we have a low income. And we appreciate this help,” said Luz and Refugio added, “it means a lot to me, it's a blessing, thank you very much.”
The meals included turkey, potatoes, stuffing, corn, and green beans. The distribution started at 8 and hundreds of cars lined up on the street outside of the Pan American Center. Alba mentioned that he was excited because they had never handed out this many meals before.
“But, with everything going on, you know it's unfortunate, but we actually have had to turn some families away. It's not enough what we're doing. It's never going to be enough, especially when times are like this,” Alba said.
He thanks the community of Las Cruces for their generosity and for coming together. He says that this was proof of what incredible things can be done.
