by Katie Vasquez
Dozens of staff are hard at work, hoping to feed hundreds of hungry people after Thanksgiving weekend.
“We serve over 400 people per day and we do hot lunches and we give them a sandwich because we’re closed for dinner,” said Pauline Auguste, director of food services at CHIPS.
Community Help In Park Slope, or CHIPS, has been feeding the homeless for 50 years.
But they say this time is always the hardest.ter Thanksgiving it’s always a little bit intense on that first Monday where we’re always in need of extra sandwiches.”Fortunately they have some extra helping hands from Carroll Gardens.
St. Mary Star of the Sea Church has been packing lunches for the pantry since last June.
Parishioners pour their love into each of the 300 turkey, ham, or sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches.
“We shouldn’t take that kind of cold attitude of they should just be grateful that there’s anything. No we should serve them the way we would serve family,” said Mary Carriero, a parishioner at St. Mary Star of the Sea. “I think for us, that’s how we see Jesus in this.”
Every two weeks, they gather in the parish hall to help the less fortunate.
“At the end, I think it made me feel good about it, like, ‘oh at least I’m doing a good deed back,’ ” said Oliver Naeder, another parishioner at the church.
But the good deed is also giving the parishioners a priceless gift for the Christmas season: spending more time with their spiritual family.
“We see people every Sunday, but we don’t really get a chance to interact with them,” Kim Chinh, a parishioner, said. “And so here you really get a chance to try to figure out where people are from, what their background is, how long they’ve been a parishioner.”