The daily migration to the humble white house begins with the sun. In the early morning light, hundreds of people wend their way through the neighborhood and down the street, by car and by foot to line up at the door.
By the end of the day, more than 600 men and women including 200 families will pass through the two-room house to get a hot bowl of soup and a bagged lunch – perhaps the only food they will get that day.
This is Guadalupe’s. The home, at 26th Street and Third Avenue, throws its doors open Monday thru Friday to feed hungry Tucsonans.
It is one of several services the Catholic Workers Community at Casa Maria has offered for 25 years to local families and the homeless.
Inside, 12 volunteers hastily unpack green milk crates stacked high with bread, pastries, canned vegetables and fruit, and repack the food into white paper bags to pass on to people waiting in a line that now extends outside of the house, past the dirt yard with tables and park benches, and onto the concrete sidewalk.
“I come here everyday,” says Priscilla Tadeo, leaning against a chain link fence, a white Styrofoam cup of noodle soup in hand and her four-year-old daughter Gracie by her side. “Sometimes you need the extra help.”
Tadeo was laid off from her job at the Tortilla Factory. Her husband stuccos houses but only has two or three shifts a week these days. They rely on Guadalupe’s food kitchen.
It’s only two hours into the daily food service and the volunteers have worked nonstop. “I’ve already counted 225 family bags,” says Casa Maria worker Brian Flagg, as Tejano music plays in the background.
Flagg and four other full-time employees work and live at Casa Maria. They pay themselves $10 a week from privately donated money.
“We’re the only ones in town that do this kind of service,” says volunteer Pancho Medina leaning against crates of food. “I really feel it’s my obligation as a good citizen to give back to the community.”
Casa Maria relies heavily on volunteers to gather and bundle the donations of food that come from Food City, Safeway, individual drop-offs and school fundraisers.
“I don’t know what people would do without Casa Maria,” says Charlotte Speers, a 20-year volunteer. “It’s the pulse of South Tucson.”
Casa Maria is always struggling to find enough food to feed the hundreds of people who come to their door. Many times they can only offer bread.
“We have to all the time be begging for food,” Medina says.
According to Speers, Casa Maria has seen a wave of new people relying on their food service.
“I’ve seen an increase in the last few months,” she says solemnly. “I just think it’s just our economy…jobs aren’t here anymore.”
Casa Maria offers more then bagged meals.
They provide basic necessities for homeless folks, allowing them to use the phone, pick up their mail, use the shower and choose clothes from their clothing bank.
Casa Maria also hosts the El Rio health clinic that sets up next to the Guadalupe’s kitchen every Tuesday and Thursday.
“No one will be refused,” Medina says. “Most of these people don’t have health insurance.”
South Tucson police officer Angelica Lopex volunteers once a week at Guadalupe’s and says she has gained a stronger sense of community through her time there.
“I like the homeless community here, they see me in another light,” she says as she hands out soup through a tiny side window.
“It just amazes me that they come out here everyday,” adds Lopex. “No one serves the community like they (Casa Maria) do.”
As the hustle of the volunteers inside the crowded two-room Guadalupe’s house continues into late morning, Flagg becomes concerned.
“We need way more food,” he says.
Soon though, as if someone was listening, a truckload of Salpointe Catholic High School freshman appear and one-by-one unload cardboard boxes of Ramen noodles and canned food by the door.
“I didn’t have anymore food until Salpointe came,”Flagg says. “It’s a miracle to me.”
