'Blessing to hundreds': Pueblo students offer Thanksgiving meals at Tom & Louie's Cupboard

November is a special month in Pueblo — a month when local high school students set aside rivalries and band together for a common good.

The 28th annual Tom and Louie's Cupboard food drive at St. Joseph's Hall in the Grove helped feed over 400 families on Nov. 18. Participating high school students distributed food to families in the form of 60-pound boxes that included a 20-pound turkey, five pounds of beans, five pounds of potatoes, and canned and baked goods.

"People are hungry for more than food," said Chris Pena, a volunteer coordinator who has helped with the drive from its inception. "They're hungry for the touch and feel, the compassion, everything involved with this project."

Local students eager to lend a helping hand

Student council members like senior Tanner Clark and sophomore Cheyanne Ortiz of East High School started preparing for this year's drive about a month in advance. They began by contacting feeder schools and other community organizations to help collect goods.

"We first reached out to elementary schools to try to get them to collect cans... We'll go pick them up and put them in our cars and go deliver them to the hall that we're at. After we get all the cans from all the schools, we will sort them with all the other student council kids," Clark said prior to the event.

While it takes weeks of preparation, Clark and Ortiz said volunteering for Tom and Louie's Cupboard is worthwhile.

"Handing out and delivering all the boxes, the reactions that people have is just something that's worth all of the work we put in," Ortiz said. "They genuinely feel grateful for everything."

Senior Daniel Vasquez and junior Madison Gonzales were among about 60 Central High School students participating in the food drive. Like their peers at East, Vasquez and Gonzalez spent the past few weeks collecting items and putting together food boxes.

"I think it's a really good thing because we all come together to help people in need," Gonzales said.

"It's good to see everyone smile," Vasquez said.

While dozens of students inside and outside St. Joseph's Hall putting together food boxes, a team of four Pueblo West High School students — Philip Rasmussen, Cheyenne Dyleski, Ava Pecoraro, and Landyn Perez were delivering a few boxes to the homes of East Side residents.

"I love delivering the boxes, because then I can actually go and talk to people and get to know them a little bit," Rasmussen said. "I think that's one of the most meaningful parts of (Tom and Louie's Cupboard)... I can actually get to know the people that we're helping."

High school students and volunteer coordinators weren't the only ones helping out with the food drive — a team of Colorado State University Pueblo students also swung by St. Joseph's Hall on Saturday morning.

Kylie Smith, a senior at Pueblo County High School, has volunteered with Tom and Louie's Cupboard since she was in elementary school. She plans on continuing to help out with the event after she graduates from high school and attends college at CSU Pueblo.

"It's been over 10 years, so most of my life for sure," she said. "I remember coming here every Thanksgiving break, and just helping out... It's definitely one of my favorite events of the year."

Pueblo County High School students representatives, led by Smith, Jessie Christie and Cooper Jackson also assist with the St. Vincent DePaul food drive at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Blende.

Students from Rye High School, another high school in Pueblo County School District 70, conduct their own food drive in the Greenhorn Valley, according to Pueblo D70.

Who were Tom and Louie?

Tom and Louie's Cupboard began as way to honor the memory of two local priests that were murdered in 1996. Revs. Thomas Scheets and Louis Stovik were living in the rectory behind St. Leander Parish at the time of their slayings.

Stovik, who was 12 years Scheets' senior, was ordained in 1949. He served at several Pueblo parishes including Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Pius X Parish, Christ the King Parish, the Shrine of St. Therese and St. Therese Parish Vineland.

Gina Smith, an East High School teacher and mother of Kylie Smith, has helped coordinate Tom and Louie's Cupboard since 2011. She attended St. Therese Parish Vineland while Stovik was pastor.

"(Stovik) was my priest growing up... He made going to catechism and church fun," she said. "He was strict and wanted us to know everything, but he did it in a way that was different than anything I have ever seen before. It was almost like he was part of the family, everybody's family."

Scheets was ordained in 1956 and had been with the Diocese of Pueblo since 1975. While assigned to La Junta Catholic parish, he organized a voucher system for churches to provide food, gas and shelter. He also directed the La Junta Housing Authority, according to an obituary published in the Chieftain.

In 1991, Scheets arrived at St. Leander. He was credited with building camaraderie among Pueblo priests by establishing weekly dinners. He also served the Diocese as a member of multiple committees and advisory councils.

In a letter to community members, Pena writes of Scheets' and Stovik's legacies.

"They gave what little they had to nourish two or three families during the Thanksgiving holiday," Pena wrote. "Little did they know that their acts of selflessness and generosity would live on as a blessing to hundreds of needy families in our community."

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Tom and Louie's Cupboard celebrates 28 years in Pueblo