LAS CRUCES – The smell of eggs and pancakes filled the air Christmas morning just outside Las Cruces’ tent city for homeless residents.
About 20 members of a local Jewish synagogue were wielding spatulas, manning portable griddles and pouring cups of Starbucks coffee for Camp Hope residents, as well as other people hanging out at the broader Mesilla Valley Community of Hope campus. And several dozen homeless residents filed through, each getting a plate.
Among them was Carlos Fisher, a resident of the nearby Gospel Rescue Mission. He’s a laborer, but a shoulder injury has kept him from working. Fisher said he’s not religious, so the Christmas holiday isn’t significant to him. But he does appreciate the good will of groups who donate their time and effort to help homeless people.
“It’s good,” he said. “No one really has to do this. It’s really them choosing to come out here and do this,” he said. “And they do. And they’re always happy to do it.”
‘Something we can offer’
It’s the sixth year Temple Beth-El in Las Cruces has hosted the hot breakfast for Las Cruces homeless residents. And while it might seem on the surface paradoxical for a Jewish congregation to serve the breakfast — because Christmas isn’t a holiday observed in the Jewish religion — congregants said it’s not.
Rabbi Larry Karol of Temple Beth-El said it is customary across the country for Jewish congregations to fill in for Meals On Wheels and other charity efforts’ volunteers on Christmas. That’s because many Jews are off of work and free to help while other volunteers are celebrating the Christmas holiday, he said.
“I think it’s something we can offer,” he said.
A helping hand
The breakfast kicked off at 7:30 a.m. — about half an hour after sunrise — amid cold but clear weather.
The temperature was a fraction of degree above freezing, according to a New Mexico State University weather station. And many breakfast attendees were dressed in coats, caps and gloves.
Temple Beth-El member Susan Fitzgerald, who spearheads the yearly effort to host the breakfast, said there’s quite a bit of interest from the congregation in participating. Months before it happens, she starts getting inquiries about the preparations.
Donating blankets and food items to the synagogue’s charitable causes, without knowing who they’re benefiting, is positive, Fitzgerald said. But the experience is even more meaningful when donors get to meet face-to-face with the recipients and hear their stories.
“The next level is actually interacting with the people you’re helping,” she said.