{"id":24648,"date":"2024-11-28T22:17:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T05:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/salvation-army-feeds-700-people-for-a-packed-farmington-thanksgiving\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:58:13","slug":"salvation-army-feeds-700-people-for-a-packed-farmington-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/salvation-army-feeds-700-people-for-a-packed-farmington-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvation Army feeds 700 people for a packed Farmington Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Salvation
Salvation Army volunteer Vicente Jacquez waits for the plates to be filled up for serving during the annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the Farmington Civic Center on Thursday. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Farmington Civic Center was transformed into a festive and welcoming dining hall that served about 700 people on Thanksgiving afternoon.<\/p>\n

It was the Salvation Army\u2019s Community Thanksgiving dinner, and it was open to anyone looking for a hearty meal and conversation.<\/p>\n

The annual event was from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., but preparation started long before the doors opened, and the turkey was served. Nearly 200 volunteers came out to take on a variety of jobs, including cooking, decorating, setting up and serving.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Civic Center environment is beautiful,\u201d said Tanya Marie, who was volunteering with her daughter Franchesca Marie. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to come together and help these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marie sat with Mattie Julian, who has volunteered for the past 11 years. \u201cIt was wonderful. We had a lot of people to serve,\u201d Julian said.<\/p>\n

Julian talked her friend Bert Marsh into coming out this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met a lot of people,\u201d said Marsh, who admitted she was a bit nervous at first, but \u201ceveryone was friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also commented that \u201cthe food was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Estrella
Estrella Montoya (left) and her fellow Salvation Army volunteers prepare the food platters in the kitchen at Farmington Civic Center on Thursday for the annual Thanksgiving Dinner. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The full turkey dinner with all the fixings was prepared in partnership with The Lord\u2019s Pantry and Hills Church, said Lt. Christopher Rockwell, with the Salvation Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this every year, and the city and the Civic Center are an amazing partner for us,\u201d Rockwell said, adding, \u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rockwell said there were 600 people served last year, but the need this year seems greater. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen people, who need a lot of food boxes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year has been very good,\u201d Rockwell said. \u201cWe had a lot of volunteers and a lot of hungry mouths to feed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Richard
Richard Lewis, U.S. Navy and Vietnam veteran, shows his approval for the Thanksgiving dinner served and given by the Salvation Army on Thursday at Farmington Civic Center. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brianna
Brianna Pena Andrade, Miss Teen New Mexico 2024-25, walks between tables to serve Thanksgiving dinners provided by the Salvation Army on Thursday at Farmington Civic Center. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brooklyn
Brooklyn Jacquez, Piedra Vista High School sophomore, serves a turkey dinner provided by the Salvation Army during Thanksgiving on Thursday in the Farmington Civic Center banquet room. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

200 volunteers setup, decorate, cook and serve at the Farmington Civic Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648","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=24648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78621,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648\/revisions\/78621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24648"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}