For Milwaukee's homeless, hungry and those who serve them, Christmas is a time of generosity, hope
Last year, Nivario Grice and Nyrie Melendez had a Christmas tree, gifts for their family and a stable place to live.
This year, they don’t know what they’re going to do. They’ve been homeless since March with two toddler daughters.
They’ve been bouncing around, staying with relatives where they can, living apart.
Grice, 39, who is studying to be a teacher, has one wish for this Christmas: A home.
He and Melendez, 24, brought their children to St. Ben’s Community Meal the week before Christmas for an appointment in hopes of being placed in supportive housing.
They’re in a difficult stretch, but Grice is holding onto some hope. He can see a future where his family is settled and happy.
“Everything else ain’t so bad, so I feel like maybe something good’s coming,” he said.
Grice has fond memories of big Christmas Eve gatherings at his grandparents’ home, the grandkids singing carols, food and bags of gifts for everyone.
“That’s something that I want to carry on,” he said.
Help from St. Ben’s could be a step in that direction. Capuchin Community Services’ longstanding ministry in Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood draws the homeless and hungry for free hot meals six nights a week.
Visitors also have access to laundry, showers, a social worker and, in cold months, an overnight warming center, or shelter.
Christmastime is a reminder of how much need there is in Milwaukee, said the Rev. Mike Bertram. He’s doing double duty as the director of Capuchin Community Services and as pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Parish.
Rising prices and soaring rents have had a “snowball” effect on the city’s poorest residents, he said. The warming center opened in early December and already is at capacity. Plans to expand the warming center's capacity took shape in recent days as temperatures dipped dangerously low.
Still, he’s consistently impressed by people’s generosity this time of year. Earlier in the day, people dropped bins full of donated toys at the Capuchins’ House of Peace so that families in need would have gifts for their children.
Of the pace and high level of need this time of year, Bertram said, “It’s exhausting, it’s maddening, but it’s exciting too to see how the services of a place like House of Peace or St. Benedict can really help people.”
A hot meal from caring strangers: 'That's a blessing'
In the serving line the week before Christmas, volunteers from two area Catholic churches heaped people’s trays with food: sloppy joes, green salad, corn, Jell-O with banana slices, fresh veggies and an array of desserts, some sprinkled with bits of candy cane.
Sue Ellen Christman, a volunteer from St. Monica Parish in Whitefish Bay, placed the fresh vegetables people requested on their trays – cucumbers, celery, cauliflower. More often than not, she’d sneak a round, red radish in there, too.
Her fellow volunteers teased her for it. “Stop pushing the radishes!”
“It’s good for you,” she laughed.
Christman, whose favorite holiday is Christmas in part because it’s so close to her name, was at St. Ben’s this year in honor of a close friend who recently died.
The two made a tradition of serving Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with the Salvation Army downtown.
“We were (involved) in everything for the community. She was just that way,” Christman said.
This was a way of carrying on her legacy.
“I don’t have family here, but the neighborhood is the family, the city is the family,” she said.
Across the room in a pink sweatsuit and jean jacket, Chyna Harris, 27, was finishing up her meal. She’s going through a rough patch, she said, financially strained and without a job or stable place to live.
“It’s kind of difficult to take care of myself, take showers, eat, things like that,” she said.
Last year at Christmas, she was living with her boyfriend.
This year, she hopes to see her family but has no expectations.
She was grateful for the kindness of strangers in providing her a hot meal on a cold day.
“It means that somebody actually out there actually cares about people that are less fortunate than them,” Harris said. “That’s a blessing.”
Harris doesn’t complain too much about her situation. It always could be worse, she said.
“It’s bad, but it’s not the end,” Harris said.
'I always see hope'
Abraham Tate, 67, who also sat down for a meal, proudly says he’s been clean 27 years.
He’s a regular presence at St. Ben’s Community Meal and often asks for a blessing, Bertram said.
“I just like to come in every night, sit with somebody and have a conversation,” Tate said. “If somebody might be mad, they might be upset, I’m the kind of person to calm them down, build their hope up.”
That hope stems from a strong faith. Tate said he doesn’t know where he would spend Christmas.
“But I know one thing: I’m alive.”
Those who shuffled through the serving line, most wearing big coats and carrying bags, were met first by Kathy Smith, who handed each person a tray.
Smith, a volunteer from Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in West Allis, wore a festive green and blue hat. She’s been helping at St. Ben’s for over 10 years with her church and is driven by her Catholic faith.
“How else can you act as Jesus to all the people that you meet?” she said.
Smith got a love of volunteering from her parents, who were active in their community, and passed it onto her children.
None of her four adult kids will be in town this year for Christmas, so it’ll be a smaller holiday celebration than usual.
She’s looking forward to Christmas Mass with her mother, who has memory issues but remembers the ritual of Mass clearly.
Smith keeps a busy volunteering schedule year-round, but she’s found herself extra busy this December with toy and coat donation drives, preparing bag lunches for people at St. Ben’s and holding Bible studies at the juvenile justice center.
“I always see hope. I don’t know how you could go without hope,” she said.
'I've felt blessed'
Another who is heading into the holidays with an optimistic perspective is Josué Castro, 57, who lives next door at St. Anthony Place – supportive apartments for chronically homeless individuals.
Castro said he thanks God for the help he’s received to rise out of homelessness. He’s now got a beloved black and white therapy cat, Binda, and people who assist him with daily tasks.
He’ll be celebrating the holiday with his sister.
“It’s been the first year that I’ve felt safe, I’ve felt blessed, healthier,” Castro said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: At St. Ben's Community Meal in Milwaukee, hope in the serving line
