{"id":24620,"date":"2024-11-28T15:33:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T22:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/graces-kitchen-feeds-hundreds-a-thanksgiving-meal-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:57:12","slug":"graces-kitchen-feeds-hundreds-a-thanksgiving-meal-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/graces-kitchen-feeds-hundreds-a-thanksgiving-meal-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace\u2019s Kitchen feeds hundreds a Thanksgiving meal in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Volunteers
Volunteers serve a Thanksgiving meal at Grace\u2019s Kitchen in Cortez on Thanksgiving Day. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Over a month ago, volunteers at Grace\u2019s Kitchen started preparing for its annual Thanksgiving meal. This year, they expected to serve around 600 people.<\/p>\n

Inside St. Barnabas Episcopal Church the morning of Thanksgiving Day was crowded with volunteers, all doing their part to make the meal come together.<\/p>\n

They worked in an assembly line to construct the \u201ctraditional Thanksgiving meal\u201d of turkey, stuffing, hearty green beans and a sweet potato crisp, said Chris Snyder, who cooks the meal with his family.<\/p>\n

\"A
A crowded room of volunteers works together at Grace\u2019s Kitchen to assemble an estimated 600 meals for community members in Cortez. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The start of the volunteer assembly line preparing Thanksgiving meal at Grace\u2019s Kitchen in Cortez. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a real community effort,\u201d said Snyder. \u201cI\u2019m always impressed with how people put down their own plates and help others pick up theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snyder said his family first got involved about seven years ago \u2013 when just over 200 people came for the Thanksgiving meal \u2013 after seeing a photo of prepackaged dinner rolls in the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started out with donating fresh, homemade bread, and it evolved from there,\u201c Snyder said.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re now the lead cooks of the operation, and his sister is Mona Makes on Facebook, who\u2019s well known for making tasty food in the Cortez area.<\/p>\n

As for desserts, since \u201cno Thanksgiving is complete without pie,\u201d there were long, rectangular folding tables stacked with small takeout boxes, four high or higher, with pie inside.<\/p>\n

Writing on the containers gave away the flavors- some read \u201capple crumb,\u201d \u201cpecan,\u201d or \u201cchr\u201d for cherry.<\/p>\n

Victoria Atkins, a volunteer, recalled how just a week ago, they didn\u2019t have enough pies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 50, and we needed closer to 80,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n

The community came out, she said, and a lot of people brought in pies so they ultimately met their goal.<\/p>\n

Plus, Walmart donated a dozen or more, and intends to donate pies again next year.<\/p>\n

\"Pies
Pies on pies on pies, all ready to go on Thanksgiving Day at Grace\u2019s Kitchen in Cortez. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hundreds
Hundreds of containers of cranberry sauce ready to pair with the Thanksgiving meal at Grace\u2019s Kitchen. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Beside the desserts, stacks of hundreds of small containers of cranberry sauce sat stacked and ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some (volunteers) here from our congregation, but a lot are people from the wider community,\u201d said The Rev. Douglas Bleyle, rector of the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n

Atkins said that a month prior, on Sunday morning, volunteers had started preparing the turkey. After Mass, people stayed to help debone and clean turkeys.<\/p>\n

Many moons later, the hard work paid off: They ended up with 201.5 pounds of turkey, which works out to be about 30 birds.<\/p>\n

In addition to the turkey, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, teams of eight or 12 volunteers got together to package pickles and olives, and to cut pies, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, and a big thank you to the Farm Bistro; they made the potatoes,\u201d Bleyle said.<\/p>\n

Once the meals were assembled inside, they were brought outside to a table of volunteers that served community members directly.<\/p>\n

Near the pickup line, at a table in the sun, Mark Westbrook enjoyed his Thanksgiving meal across from Amanda Lofkins, who was bringing meals home to her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really good meal,\u201d Westbrook said in between bites. \u201cThey\u2019re a really good group that volunteers their time. They do an outstanding job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lofkins agreed, and said she was most excited for the cranberries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice because some people are lonely on the holidays,\u201d said Lofkins. \u201cIt\u2019s nice they\u2019re always here.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; they\u2019re always there, serving hot meals, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe holiday isn\u2019t so bad when you have the community,\u201d Lofkins said.<\/p>\n

Raleigh Cato, who\u2019s volunteered time the past four years to help put together the Thanksgiving meal, said the community is precisely why she keeps coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Barnabas is a place to gather. People show up from everywhere; it\u2019s the most fulfilling thing,\u201d Cato said.<\/p>\n

After a month of preparing, the meal came together and everything went \u201csmooth,\u201d Bleyle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be homeless to come eat, you just need to be hungry,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018You don\u2019t have to be homeless, you just need to be hungry\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78610,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24620\/revisions\/78610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24620"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}