Casa de Peregrinos

Homeless food pantry facing crisis

Casa de Peregrinos facing shortages of food and money
By Todd G. Dickson

Las Cruces Bulletin

A steadily rising wave of homeless people arriving at Casa de Peregrinos’ door to seek nourishment has the nonprofit group calling out to the community for support – be it more food supplies or financial assistance.

“This is a crisis,” said Tom Packard, vice chairman of the Casa de Peregrinos board. “Our budget is looking to be about $84,000 short and we are running out of food.”

Located on the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope campus, the nonprofit food bank for the homeless provides packages of food stuffs – beans, flour, rice, cheese, tomato sauce and such. The value of a package ranges from a little more than $5 for one to three people to more than $33 for a family of more than 10.

In 2008, Casa de Peregrinos provided the food packages to almost 30,500 people. Last year, that number grew to more than 33,270 people. Like all other nonprofits, there is less gov­ernment money and private grants, Packard said. The amount of money Casa de Peregri­nos usually gets from the United Way decrease by 90 percent, he said.

As a result, Casa de Peregrinos has had to dip into its rainy day fund more than the board members would like, he said.

In some ways, Casa de Peregrinos has found itself in the same situation as many of the peo­ple it sustains.

“It’s kind of frightening to be dealing from hand to mouth,” he said.

But it really hit home to Packard when he was recently volunteering at the food pantry and saw something disturbing – no cereal, no pasta and no peanut butter.

“The cupboard really was bare,” Packard said.

Packard said he knew he had to reach out to the media to get the word out. Like many other nonprofits, too many in the community assume the group is getting sufficient grant and government funding, he said.

“We really need the community to take some ownership and get involved,” Packard said.

Though Casa de Peregrinos enjoys the sup­port of some community groups, it now needs more to hold food drives and help raise funds, he said.

In terms of food, the best donations are canned food,cereal,peanut butter and pasta.Casa de Peregrinos does get fresh produce through the Community Action Agency Food Bank.

In terms of money, “we can use anything from $1 to $1,000,” Parkard said. The nonprof­it also is holding a fundraising raffle.

Casa de Peregrinos also provides support to food banks in Mesquite, Sunland Park and Anthony, N.M., said Assistant Manager Crystal Salazar.

Anyone who shows up for the first time gets a food package, she said. After being registered with Casa de Peregrinos, they can pick up one food package a month, she said.

Salazar said Casa de Peregrinos really began to feel the affects of an increase in homeless­ness this winter, though the growth really be­gan earlier last year as the economic recession caused massive job losses nationally.

How to help

Casa De Peregrinos is holding a fundraising raffle. Tickets are $5 and 1,000 are for sale. First prize is a $100 gas card from Shell, second prize is an iPod Shuffle package, third prize is four movie tickets and fourth prize is a $25 gift certificate to Red Lobster, Hooters or the Olive Garden. To buy a ticket, visit Casa de Peregrinos at the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope campus at 999 W. Amador Ave.

For more information about Casa de Peregrinos, visit www.casadeperegrinos.org

Article from Las Cruces Bulletin - Todd G. Dickson - Posted 4/2/2010