Loretto Hunger Fund Helps Support Jemez Springs, N.M., Organizations

By Sharon Palma

Jemez Helping Hands and Jemez Springs Presbyterian Church in the Jemez Springs, N.M., area have been recipients of the Loretto Hunger Fund for several years. The population that is served with these donations includes the Jemez Native Americans on the Jemez Indian Pueblo, the local Hispanic natives and the local native families of the Jemez Valley.

Two food pantries are supported, one on the Jemez Pueblo and the other in the Village of Jemez Springs at the Jemez Presbyterian Church. Jemez Helping Hands manages the food pantry on the pueblo and works in collaboration with the food pantry at the Presbyterian church.

In the past six months, a mobile food pantry has opened up at the local Jemez Valley Public School, serving 100 families, with 5,000 pounds of food a month, 50 pounds per family, sponsored by the Albuquerque-based Roadrunner Food Bank. The food includes fresh produce, a variety of fresh meat and dairy products on a once-a-month basis. To qualify for receiving distribution with this new mobile food pantry, you have only to have a family member as a student at the public school (Pre-K through senior in high school) or qualify as a senior citizen.

Jemez Helping Hands is a non-profit organization that also operates a “clothes closet” and pays a portion of utility bills, assists with propane bills and provides firewood for wood stoves. In addition, Jemez Helping Hands accepts and places donations of furniture and appliances to those in need. The July 4th Flea Market and the October Trail Sale raise money for Jemez Helping Hands. We also send out fund-raising letters in late November. The staff is all volunteer. Delores Kincaide, Karen Knoll and I have all been involved for many years in this endeavor and are very grateful to and for the Loretto Hunger Fund.

I like to point out that many of the recipients of the food bank distributions are Jemez people with the last name of Loretto. When Loretto Sisters taught in Bernalillo, N.M., in 1891 to 1952, the students were mostly from the Jemez Pueblo and rode to school on horseback (now a 40-minute car ride). When commodities were first offered by our government, the Jemez Pueblo people needed a surname, and many of them chose the name of the sisters who were teaching them: Loretto. So, today, many of the Jemez Indian Natives’ last names are Loretto. We are all connected!