{"id":91402,"date":"2019-12-07T00:24:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T00:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-prepares-for-annual-community-christmas-dinner\/"},"modified":"2019-12-07T00:24:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T00:24:08","slug":"cortez-prepares-for-annual-community-christmas-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-prepares-for-annual-community-christmas-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez prepares for annual community Christmas dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Everyone
Everyone is invited to the annual Community Christmas Dinner at the Montezuma County Annex.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 29th annual Community Christmas Dinner is coming up, and it\u2019s free to everyone looking for a neighborly meal.<\/p>\n

The dinner has become a Christmas tradition and feeds about 500 people every year, said Sharon King, the event\u2019s coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing thing that happens every year, and it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d King said. \u201cIt\u2019s the happiest day of my entire year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will take place Dec. 25 at the Montezuma County Annex from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. \u2013 or until all the food runs out.<\/p>\n

The community dinner is open to all. Many attendees are homeless or don\u2019t have a kitchen at home, and some just want to feast with others, King said.<\/p>\n

Volunteers also get involved in the dinner, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve all been in situations where Christmas has been hard,\u201d King said. \u201cAnd then things have turned around. And a lot of those folks are the ones who show up to be of service. Because they know.\u201d<\/p>\n

King has been involved with the dinner for five years, she said. She used to be stationed in the kitchen, but now her daughter handles much of that and King\u2019s been able to step into a coordinating position, she said.<\/p>\n

As coordinator, she is in charge of fundraising and bringing together all the volunteers and food preparation for the event. Feeding 500 people takes about $2,500, King said \u2013 enough for 30 turkeys, potatoes, salad, stuffing, green beans, dessert and more.<\/p>\n

Different local organizations sponsor the event each year. This December, organizers are partnering with The Sharehouse, the new community food center at 30 N. Beech St.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt pretty much fits with our mission of feeding people,\u201d said Laurie Hall, director of The Sharehouse, which is a project of the nonprofit Montezuma Food Coalition. The Sharehouse receives the donations and allocates them through Onward! A Legacy Foundation, the fiscal sponsor of the Montezuma Food Coalition.<\/p>\n

The Sharehouse also collects local food for the dinner and will provide roasted potatoes, salad and bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those events where everybody\u2019s important, where everybody\u2019s equal,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n

Donations and volunteers are still being sought for the dinner, King said. To donate, call 565-1151 or visit the Onward! donation website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To sign up for a volunteer shift, drop by the Cortez Cultural Center, another participating organizer. This year, coordinators plan a pie drive, asking locals to bring a homemade pie to the annex on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

Musicians also are needed for the Christmas Day performance.<\/p>\n

ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

holiday tradition coming up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,438,2199,28,29,1269,2678],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-food","tag-frontpage","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-nonprofits","tag-religious-festival-or-holiday"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91402","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=91402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91402"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}