On Tuesday afternoon students at the Si, Se Puede! Learning
Center at 500 IOOF Ave., a supplemental after-school program for
children in the kindergarten through fifth grades, cooked a full
course meal for 100 diners. Full article
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“She squirted me!” shrieked Melanie Perez, 8, one of several youngsters engrossed in peeling a pyramid of oranges.
Perez’s buddy Karina Pineda, 9, smiled sweetly and denied any mischievous play.
“I don’t know,” she said, nonchalantly gazing at the juice-smeared table in front of her, attempting to gauge how many oranges she had skinned for the fruit salad.
“I think it’s like, 20.”
The girl seated next to Pineda had become sidetracked. She impaled an entire orange with her index finger, then held up her hand and giggled.
On Tuesday afternoon students at the Si, Se Puede! Learning Center at 500 IOOF Ave., a supplemental after-school program for children in the kindergarten through fifth grades, cooked a full course meal for 100 diners.
It was then delivered to St. Mary School gymnasium on First Street, where the St. Joseph’s Family Center has been hosting the Lord’s Table Hot Meals Program for 30 years. Here staff and volunteers serve food to the homeless and low-income families on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
St. Joseph Pantry Coordinator Vicky Martin said the gesture was a nice breather for Laticia Jimenez, meal coordinator for Lord’s Table and Wheeler Manor on Sixth and Carmel Streets.
There are several groups, Martin noted who occasionally adopt a night and help Jimenez out, but Thursday was the first time a handful of willing volunteers had taken on the entire task.
“It was kind of a nice minibreak for me,” said Jimenez as she removed tin lids from rectangular pans filled with spaghetti.
An hour earlier, however, it looked as though Si, Se Puede’s! organic act of philanthropy would conclude in comedic disaster.
What started as 20 kids, several volunteers, three employees, 13 boxes of pasta, 21 pounds of marinara, a table full of unpeeled fruit and 6 tubes of cookie dough progressed to a sea of sticky fingers, a pile of banana peels, a mess of orange rinds, red tomato sauce splattered on white walls, a shortage of cooking pots and a near-crippling fiasco concerning an entire tray of uncooked sausage.
“We want to feed the homeless, not make them sick,” observed Si, Se Puede! Resident Service Director Annie Eldon as she scooped a clump of rare meat from a pot of boiling sauce and examined it with a look of concern.
Up until this little snafu, 10-year-old Adriana Hermosillo “Bieber” (an avid fan of singing teen pop sensation Justin Bieber), Alexia Margarita Sanchez, 10, and Abigail Hermosillo, 9, were chopping sausage with dutiful zeal.
However in a somewhat crucial culinary hiccup, the three were dropping raw, uncooked chunks of meat directly into pots of bubbling marinara – an issue discovered roughly 45 minutes before the food was supposed to be delivered and served.
“It’s like an episode of ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ said Ray Gonsales as he tried without success to catch an escaping meatball.
It bounced off the stove and rolled across the linoleum floor.
Gonsales, a 19-year-old studying administration of justice at Gavilan College, was one of a handful of student volunteers fulfilling service-learning requirements that afternoon. Prior to the sausage debacle, Gonsales had been on cookie dough duty – little did he know he would end up saving the day.
“Out of all the people here, you wouldn’t think the guy would be the one who ended up cooking,” he said.
He scooted meatballs around a frying pan while simultaneously tending to a massive stainless steel pot of pasta.
This intervention became a lifesaver for Eldon, who, despite a distracting chorus of energetic children calling her name every other second – “Miss Annie! Miss Annie! Miss Annie!” – still managed to answer an arsenal of questions fired in her direction.
“Yes, you can make cookies.”
“You’ve got to do more then than that at one time.”
“I know, we’ll do snacks later.”
As Sanchez, who was wearing sneakers with built-in wheels, started gliding back and forth across the kitchen floor, staffer Thomas Guzowski’s eyes grew large from several feet away.
Up until now, Guzowski was running around – literally – on germ patrol, chasing offenders with a bottle of hand sanitizer.
“I’m just waiting for this to be a disaster in the kitchen,” he said.
He spent the next five minutes patiently reasoning with Sanchez, who was not keen on the proposal to change her shoes.
Over at the salad station Mayor Al Pinheiro, who had stopped in for the occasion to help cook, was hunched over a large blue bowl grating carrots.
“Do you like them cooked, or raw?” he asked Miguel Piñeda, 7, who was seated across the table.
Piñeda, wearing a baseball hat cocked to the side, seemed caught off guard by this question and looked up at Pinheiro with confusion.
“What does that mean?”
For the duration of the afternoon Piñeda remained faithfully seated at his post, becoming so engaged with the task of slicing carrots he’d ripped through the bottom of his paper plate.
Prior to departing, Pinheiro addressed the students in a heart-to-heart, thanking them sincerely and explaining the positive implications of their efforts.
“You and I could be homeless tomorrow. It’s important that you think of that. We’re all susceptible to being on the streets someday if our parents or ourselves lose our jobs,” he said. “Go home tonight, give your parents a big hug and kiss and tell them how grateful you are for them to put food on the table and keep you clothed.”
Eldon explained this month students have specifically been focusing on service learning projects to honor civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who coined the Si, Se Puede! slogan. It translates to “Yes, we can.”
Students participated in a brainstorming session back in February, and voted on helping the homeless from a list of 20 different ideas.
“It seemed to be really important to them,” she said.
Eldon mentioned grocery funds for Tuesday’s dinner were donated by Jim Currier, a Gilroy resident who owns Flowstar, Inc. at 6800 Silacci Way, and is currently attempting to open a permanent homeless shelter in Gilroy.
“It was crazy shopping for it. I had no idea what I was getting into,” laughed Eldon good-humoredly as she stirred a sauce pan. “It’s just guess and go.”
Despite the madness and two-hour time crunch students had to whip up enough food to feed 100 hungry guests, the end result was something to smile at.
“This is by far one of the nicest meals we’ve ever had here,” said volunteer and retired teacher Mike.
As diners filed into St. Mary’s gymnasium around 5:30 p.m., they were greeted by volunteers and a prevalent sense of hospitality. Some guests bowed their heads in prayer as they sat down to eat, and local musician Tim Moon set the ambiance with his acoustic guitar, strumming “Sunshine On My Shoulders” while playing the harmonica.
Whatever traces of cheerful chaos it took to make the meal happen had, by now, melted into something very good.
“A lot of my regulars were really happy yesterday,” Jimenez said Wednesday. “They thought it was adorable when I told them kids had cooked dinner for them.”
