Postal Carriers Drive
On May 8th the postal carriers of Las Cruces, delivered bags to each mailing address to be filled with non-perishable items. Then on Saturday the 11th of May they did double duty. These awesome postal carriers not only delivered and picked up the mail, but they filled their trucks with food for many local non-profits. El Caldito is one non-profit that is very grateful and thankful for what was collected and distributed.
By mid afternoon food bags were coming in.
Manny and Herb worked as a team.
Herb put food into crates.
The job began at the post office, but the bulk of the work happened at the kitchen. Members of our board drove trucks and our van to El Caldito delivering the food. Then a team of parents and kids from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints headed by Kimbal Hakes began to sort.
Wil Lamarre explained to the kids how he wanted things sorted.
Everyone was busy working to get things sorted and put away.
Later in the afternoon some of the older kids came and continued to sort cans and food items.
Thank goodness we had the 2nd shift come in, since we had lots to do.
Happy Workers!!!
A big THANKS goes out to the Postal Carriers and to all of our volunteers.
Future El Caldito Board of Directors
Break Time…enjoying a pastry!
On April 27th the youth and parents from South Western International Church of Christ spent the morning at El Caldito cleaning outside and working on projects inside. Today I am Thanking the parents and the children who spent the morning folding plastic ware in napkins for our Sunday meals. The ages ranged from 2 years old to 9 years old. These little people are our FUTURE!!!
Eva is 9 years old and the oldest in the group.
Seth is 2 years old and the youngest.
I wish some of our older volunteers had the patience this little girl had.
Another child working hard to complete the task.
You can’t say Thank you too much, so I’d like to say it again. We appreciate the parents who took the time to encourage their children to work on a task and to teach them what it means to volunteer.
Keep up the good work.
Everyone is BUSY!!!
All done with our work and it’s time to head home.
Government and Counseling Graduates Work Together
April 20th two university graduate organizations helped out in our kitchen. NMSU’s Government Graduate Student Organization and Counseling Masters Student Association worked together. Under the direction of Herb, heavy duty cleaning jobs were accomplished and rote wrapping of plastic ware set-up by Donna was also accomplished. The afternoon was a success and it was fun getting to know the New Mexico State University Graduate students and some of their professors.
Shams and Jeff worked hard scrubbing oven racks. A job that sometimes doesn’t get done on a daily basis.
Alvin was in the dish washing room scrubbing away but had time for a photo op with a SMILE!!!
Task Master Herb kept people busy scrubbing oven racks. Christina scrubbed one too.
Neil helped by drying the big items left from the Saturday Sack Lunch Program.
Moving into the dining room both groups got to know each other while wrapping 200 napkins with blue bands and 200 napkins with red bands, all containing knives, forks and spoons. It was an assembly line at its BEST!!! Mission was accomplished and now we have a head start on our preparations for the Veterans Appreciation Dinner and July meals.
NMSU has sent us many campus groups and they have all done a spectacular job for us. Remember if you want to volunteer, email us at elcaldito@yahoo.com. Groups need to be scheduled, so please give us plenty of notice. THANK YOU!!!
Phi Sigma Pi Volunteers
Happy to have this group help us.
On April 13th six great students from Phi Sigma Pi arrived promptly at noon to help out with the Spaghetti Dinner preparation. This dinner was being sponsored by the United Military Women of the Southwest. After donning aprons and gloves they were ready to work.
Tiffany began with chopping the tomatoes.
Mario and John were busy chopping the lettuce, after Shaun washed and removed the cores.
Odai had experience in the kitchen, so after salad prep, he minced garlic for the garlic bread.
Karen Woods arrived from the UMWSW and delegated jobs to some of this group in the dining room. Mario wrote letters to soldiers and others jumped in to help put the tablecloths on the tables. We will have this group back again. They were pleasant, polite and VERY HELPFUL.
Mario , Tiffany and Odai worked on getting all the tables ready for the dinner.
We at El Caldito appreciate our volunteers!!!
Thank YOU!!!
PHI SIGMA PI!!!
Fairacres Elementary School Donates to El Caldito
In February Teresa Phillips asked Donna Wood to speak with the four First Grade Classes about what we did at El Caldito Soup Kitchen. I was honored to do this for her, since I met her Dad over 10-12 years ago when I first volunteered at the soup kitchen. Her Dad was kind, friendly and a caring man.
The children at Fairacres Elementary School were very knowledgeable on eating healthy foods. However, they were surprised at the size of the pans we used and the size of our kitchen.
Ruth stirring the soup.
The teachers decided to have them decorate boxes to collect canned goods and ziploc bags for us. Donna suggested they decorate posters to hang in our dining room at El Caldito and decorate lunch sacks for Saturday Sack Lunches. Wait to you see them. The students did a great job.
Many clients were happy to see what the children in First Grade had done for them.
Positive thoughts to make people feel special.
Delightful Drawings!
Of course, someone drew a bowl of soup.
On March 12th, it was the First Grade Students big day. They performed in their multi purpose room during two school assemblies. Several students read what they learned about El Caldito and then they sang two songs about FOOD.
The students watched teacher Mrs. Phillips while singing the song “On Top of Spaghetti.”
At the end of the program one student came out in front of the audience and announced the the school had collected 837 cans for El Caldito.
Just a few of several boxes decorated.
We are so delighted and happy that Fairacres Elementary School decided to donate to the soup kitchen. They have made a lot of people HAPPY!!!
Mrs. Phillip’s Class
THANK YOU STUDENTS, FACULTY and PARENTS for helping with this project.
Flexible Volunteers Appreciated!
Jason, Jared, Tony, Cali and Amanda THANK YOU for your help!
Five wonderful and very flexible students from Management Class #309 from NMSU jumped right in with whatever they were asked to do. No complaints, just a a smile and tell me what you want done. No job was too little or too difficult. People like you make my job as Volunteer coordinator EASY!!!
Cali works the window, emptying trays and passing them through to the dish washers.
Jared helps Wil move frozen items from the outside freezer to the inside freezer. This rotation of foods helps the crew chiefs to use food in a timely fashion.
We recycle at El Caldito, so we needed Tony to help break down the boxes for the recycling dumpster.
Tony serves one of our client a beverage.
Peeling garlic isn’t an easy task, but the job was completed.
Every day the gleaners deliver foods to us. Amanda was busy chopping up turkey pot roasts to be bagged.
Again Thank you for all your help. Email Donna at elcaldito@yahoo.com, if you want to work again.
Volunteers from all Over!
Recently El Caldito was contacted by Camping World in Anthony, Texas. They have begun a program where their employees need to give back to the community by volunteering 8 hours a quarter at varying non-profits. We have been delighted to have a few of these people help us out.
On March 18, 2011, two employees from Camping World helped out at the kitchen.
Juan and Rose helped dice carrots.
Lately we have had lots of carrots to dice and bag for the freezer. We will be able to use them in soups and stews later. It is not an easy task when you have 25-50 pounds of carrots to get ready for the freezing.
It took more than two people to do this task.
El Caldito appreciates hard working volunteers.
