CAREing in Las Cruces and southern NM

As springtime hit in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic also swept across the globe. All of a sudden, restaurants closed and schools stood empty. Farmers lost their markets, and fresh food rotted in the fields.

Then the government stepped in. One of the things provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was to pay framers for their products.

“The CARES act did a lot of good things,” said Associate Pastor Thomas Bulger at Heart for the World Church in Las Cruces. “One of the things was they said, ‘we will buy these products from these dairy farms and farmers so they can at least get some money for their crops’ and then they established a new distribution chain, and the congressional appropriation pays for it.”

Heart for the World has stepped to the plate and taken on the role as a distribution point for some of the food. In fact, every Tuesday, semi-truck loads of produce boxes roll into the church parking lot on Valley Drive. The boxes are picked up by non-profit and church organizations from across southwest New Mexico for free distribution in area communities – Las Cruces, High Rolls, Cloudcroft, Deming, Lordsburg, Alamogordo, Silver City and others.

Bulger said they can order up to 4,800 boxes for the people of the area. Then on Wednesday, the church and other organizations distribute the food to anyone who can use 25 pounds of the seasonal produce.

“It’s a beautiful box of produce,” Bulger said. “Lettuce, oranges, onions, celery stalks, strawberries, lemons.”

The food is distributed through El Paso, and the system works on a simple text-message basis. Organizations interested in picking up and dispersing the produce can call the church at 575-523-1113 and will be put on a text-message system where they can ask for one or more boxes. Then, when the trucks leave El Paso, they get a text, and all they have to do is meet the trucks in the church parking lot to get loaded up and ready to go.

On any given distribution day, volunteers show up to do the loading and unloading work. This also happens on a simple text system, so anyone interested in helping can also call the church number and get a code for text messages.

Bulger said distribution was originally set to take place at Casa de Peregrinos, but there was little room in the parking lot for trucks to maneuver, much less for agencies to pick up their boxes, so Heart for the World volunteered its parking lot and services as the distribution location.  

With the CARES Act still in Phase II with Phase III already appropriated, the distribution will continue through at least October. On Wednesdays, between 10 a.m. and noon, the church hands out its own boxes to its parishioners. But, Bulger said, no one is turned away.

“We want to help you with some provisions, anybody and everybody,” he said. “We don’t ask for anything. If you drive up, you will get a box of food. We also have a food pantry where people can come and get staples. Part of what we do here is pray and ask how people are doing.”

Those who drive up may encounter Senior Pastor Dale Walker as wall as other clergy helping with the distribution. Often, he prays with the people who drive through.

“You start doing a few things, and then opportunities grow,” Walker said. “When you give a little bit, you start momentum. You create a cycle, and before you know, it you are a river not a reservoir, and you are able to do things that you didn’t think you could ever do.”