AURORA | Donning a white apron, Lois Hart’s blue eyes sparkled and she smiled as she ladled steaming pasta casserole from a Crock-Pot into individual Styrofoam cups served to those coming in from the cold.
“I’m a jack of all trades,” said Hart, who was initially assigned to prepare sandwiches.
Hart is one of the more than 100 volunteers who make up the staff at Friends of St. Andrew Hospitality Center. Friends serves hot lunch to anyone Monday through Thursday and gives out food baskets to individuals and families that contain not only groceries, but also personal hygiene items such as toilet paper and toothpaste.
The hospitality center, at 1525 Dallas St. near Colfax Avenue, is the city’s only soup kitchen and one of the few agencies in town dedicated to making sure those in need have something to eat.
Maureen Hampson, the center’s director and lone paid staffer, said the weeks after Thanksgiving and before Christmas are always difficult because so much of the food in the pantry goes into the Thanksgiving baskets.
Over Thanksgiving the volunteers handed out 168 baskets filled with mashed potatoes, stuffing and other turkey-day sides. Recipients were also given a $10 gift card they could use at King Soopers to help purchase an actual turkey or an item of their choosing.
That’s in addition to the Friends volunteers going out of their way to serve a real Thanksgiving meal on the holiday.
“This year our volunteers took it upon themselves and they provided six cooked turkeys, 45 pounds of mashed potatoes with three gallons of gravy. They prepared a beautiful meal for our guests as a treat and they fed 157 people that day,” she said.
That means donations right now can be particularly helpful, she said.
Hampson said St. Andrew is always in need of canned vegetables — corn, green beans, carrots and mixed vegetables.
“The other thing we need this time of year are personal hygiene items, especially ChapStick,” she said.
Donations of socks, winter hats, warm scarves and gloves are also essential during the cold winter months for people who are living in nearby motels off of vouchers and on the streets, she said.
Beyond serving meals and giving out food baskets, Friends operates as a hub for the area’s homeless community. It’s not just a place where the needy know they can get a hot meal on a cold day; the volunteers there also help people get in touch with a variety of local service agencies who can help them get the government aid they need.
For some homeless people who don’t have an address, Friends serves almost like a post office, with the client’s mail being shipped to Friends and the client coming by to grab it when they can.
There were 6,130 people experiencing homelessness in metro Denver in January of this year, according to a point-in-time survey conducted by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Of that total, about 600 of those experiencing homelessness were veterans.
According to a 2015 report from Housing and Urban Development, there are still almost 10,000 homeless people on Colorado’s streets.
The agency’s annual estimate of homelessness said there were 9,953 homeless people in Colorado on the January night when federal and local agencies made their estimate.
Friends of St. Andrew has been a longtime resource for Aurora’s homeless, Hampson said.
Hampson started at Friends in 2008 as a volunteer herself, putting her computer skills to work maintaining guest records. Her son had recently started high school and she was looking for a way to help her community when she saw an ad in her church bulletin at Queen of Peace Catholic Church asking for volunteers at Friends.
“We develop a relationship with people and they become part of our family. When you don’t see them, you worry,” she said.
Kitty Hasche is another longtime volunteer who has dedicated countless hours planning the hospitality center’s meals. On this day, she was sorting through a shipment of fruit pastry cakes donated by an area Safeway.
The center often serves more than 100 people a day, according to its records.
Each week she sorts through donations that come in from area grocery stores, volunteers and even weekly deliveries of bratwursts from Benders.
“I work two to three weeks in advance,” she said for how she plans each meal. “I try to vary the menu by day. Two days a week it is some sort of soup with a sandwich. Three days a week it’s a form of casserole with salad.”
In the Age of Food Stamps, food banks are no longer necessary. Most folks visit food banks now so they can use their EBT card to buy food for friends and relatives for a cash discount, then buy booze or marijuana or something else for themselves with the cash.
Might now be able to get an EBT if you are homeless.
Do you receive food stamps? You seem to know a lot about this.
No. I’m a reader. I know a single mom with two kids on food stamps and they have a hard time using their monthly allotment as the kids eat free at school and their mom likes to cook.
“Hampson said St. Andrew is always in need of canned vegetables ”
So how do you donate?
Where do we drop off supples?