{"id":43045,"date":"2021-12-26T00:54:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T07:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-elves-of-cortez-christmas-drive-thru-dinner-brings-good-tidings\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:11:16","slug":"the-elves-of-cortez-christmas-drive-thru-dinner-brings-good-tidings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-elves-of-cortez-christmas-drive-thru-dinner-brings-good-tidings\/","title":{"rendered":"The elves of Cortez: Christmas drive-thru dinner brings good tidings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The people behind this year's drive-thru Christmas dinner.<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Hope\u2019s Kitchen, Sharehouse and a crew of volunteers decked the halls of the Montezuma County Annex Saturday, where they served helpings of Christmas cheer to Cortez-area residents for the dinner\u2019s 31st year.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s meal was a drive-thru because of COVID-19 concerns.<\/p>\n

Traditionally a sit-down dinner that draws 500 to 600 people, the event was canceled last year because of COVID-19. Hope\u2019s Kitchen of the First United Methodist Church, one of the partners of the event, cooked 250 meals to serve those in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m amazed by how many people donate their time on Christmas every year,\u201d event organizer Sharon King said.<\/p>\n

The partnership with Sharehouse brought an emphasis on using local ingredients in the meal, and compostable to-go packages were used Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our first go-around, we did great,\u201d event organizer Sharon King said.<\/p>\n

King was never really that into Christmas.<\/p>\n

But now, it\u2019s her favorite part of the year. Starting off as a volunteer, she eventually took over as the main event coordinator a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has made me a huge Christmas person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her family knows to plan vacations after Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re used to it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The people behind this year's drive-thru Christmas dinner.<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Event organizers embarked on the three-day preparations Thursday.<\/p>\n

Although technically, King said, planning began as soon as September, and in the three weeks leading up to Christmas, her phone was constantly ringing with calls from volunteers and those needing deliveries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI usually come home and put my feet up and sleep,\u201d King joked.<\/p>\n

On Friday, seven volunteers cooked at the annex kitchen, while another five people cooked at Hope\u2019s Kitchen. Saturday, 28 volunteers joined Hope\u2019s Kitchen staff to plate helpings of Christmas cheer for the Cortez community.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say Hope\u2019s Kitchen director Pat Downey is an expert at serving up meals to those in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a few new techniques,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Hope\u2019s Kitchen staff were eager to help out on Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"The
The people behind this year's drive-thru Christmas dinner.<\/span>Courtesy Sharon King<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe first half hour was a zoo,\u201d said Pastor Jean Schwien at First United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n

Schwien isn\u2019t married, and her kids don\u2019t live in the area.<\/p>\n

While she doesn\u2019t necessarily mind a quiet Christmas, she\u2019s amazed by how people are willing to donate their time on the holiday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow feeding 200 people is kind of fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ham, cranberries, yams, 250 pounds of roasted potatoes, green beans, Farm Bistro rolls, salads, candy canes and 45 donated pies graced Saturday\u2019s menu selection.<\/p>\n

Leftovers from the dinner will be served at lunch at Hope\u2019s Kitchen on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my favorite part of Christmas,\u201d said volunteer Emily Barton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sad last year when we couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d Cindy McNeil said.<\/p>\n

Alli Risenhoover gets six paid days for volunteerism a year \u2013 and she has chosen Christmas for the second time this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to help out and give back to the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The annual spread costs about $5,000, King said.<\/p>\n

While it typically takes fundraising, enough money was raised in 2019 to fund the event for two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hope\u2019s Kitchen and Sharehouse distribute about 300 meals <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[755,21,438,439,28,1753,167,29,598,2678],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-christmas","tag-cortez","tag-food","tag-food-drink","tag-headlines","tag-holiday-or-vacation","tag-local-news-lead","tag-newsletter","tag-public-holiday","tag-religious-festival-or-holiday"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43045","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=43045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85551,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43045\/revisions\/85551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43045"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}