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Hanford Insider: Soup Kitchen Update, City Council, and Celebrating Hanford's Milestones!

• Rob Bentley

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What does it take to sustain a vital community service for nearly four decades? Discover the answer as we highlight Father Luke Martinez, Associate Priest, who shares the remarkable story of the Episcopal Church of the Savior Soup Kitchen in Hanford. For 38 years, this essential resource has been feeding those in need, thanks to the unwavering support of volunteers and donors. Father Luke provides fascinating insights into the daily operations and the crucial partnerships that keep the kitchen running, while we explore the ongoing challenges of maintaining kitchen equipment and emphasize the need for continued community involvement.

In addition to the heartwarming story of the soup kitchen, we bring you up to date on the latest happenings in Hanford. From the Hanford City Council's discussions on annexations and ordinance revisions to the bustling community calendar filled with events like the Ohana Comic Con and the Miss Kings County competition, there's plenty of excitement in the air. We also celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Hanford Civic Auditorium, with ample opportunities for volunteer engagement. Plus, get the scoop on the local sports scene, including basketball season highlights featuring teams such as Sierra Pacific and Hanford High. Whether you're a new resident or a long-standing local, this episode offers a wealth of ways to connect with and contribute to the vibrant Hanford community.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
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Speaker 1:

On this episode of the Hanford Insider. We'll get an update from Father Luke Martinez about the community soup kitchen, then we'll check in on the latest Hanford news, plus a look at the community calendar, and later I'll be back with your sports report.

Speaker 2:

This is the Hanford Insider Podcast, where we dive into what makes our community tick, from local stories and hidden gems to conversations with people shaping our neighborhood. We're here to celebrate, explore and connect. I'm your host, rob Bentley. Whether you're new to Hanford or longtime local, this is your source for everything happening in our town, from events and news to unique conversations with people who make Hanford such a unique community. I hope you enjoy the format. I need your help getting the word out about this podcast by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll look into it. If you enjoyed this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffeecom slash hanfordinsider to make a donation. Let's take a look at this week's community news.

Speaker 2:

The Hanford City Council met on Tuesday. It was great to see our friend, kara Fleming recognized for her work with Operation Christmas Blessing. Discussion regarding annexations of county islands was once again a big topic. City staff and council wrestled with the requirements placed upon them by LAFCO but ultimately voted to move forward. An interesting potential future item was brought up by Vice Mayor Payden about the consideration of revising the ordinance regarding the number of chickens that are allowed on our property. It will appear as a future study session item. Earlier in the day the Council heard from City staff about the guidelines agreed upon to select the Revenue Measure H Oversight Committee. There will be 11 members, selected based on merit. Applications are being collected online at hanfordcity. A committee met on Wednesday to discuss the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Hanford Civic Auditorium on June 7th. Many volunteers are going to be needed to make this huge event a success. I'm on the committee so if you'd like to help out, email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll be sure to get you on the list for upcoming meetings. Here are some things coming up on our community calendar. The Mighty Oaks Chorus will be performing singing telegrams on Valentine's Day from 2 to 6 pm. If you're interested in this, send me an email at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll send you a copy of their flyer.

Speaker 2:

The Miss Kings County competition will be held on Saturday, february 15th at the Hanford High School Presentation Center. Emily Carpenter, madeline Golden and Maya Escamilla, are running for the title of Miss Kings County. The Miss Kings County team candidates are Annabelle Mensch, bailey Quintero, claire Wormadam and Kaylee King. Tickets are $20 at the door. Doors open at 2 pm and the competition begins at 2.30 pm. The Hanford Fox Theater will be showing the Twilight Saga New Moon on Saturday February 15th at 7 pm. For more information and tickets, visit foxhanfordcom.

Speaker 2:

On Saturday February 15th, the Grace Bible Church is having a Marriage Matters Date Night. Visit gbchanfordorg for more information. The Hanford Elks will be having a breakfast club on Sunday February 16th at 8 am. The Hanford Elks will be having a breakfast club on Sunday February 16th at 8 am. Also on February 16th, the Ohana Comic Con will be held at the Hanford Fraternal Hall from 11 am to 4 pm. On March 24th, the Kings County Deputy Sheriff's Association will be holding their annual golf tournament at the Kings Country Club. Email kcdsa334 at gmailcom for more information.

Speaker 2:

If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. Well, it's time to get an update on the Episcopal Church of the Savior Soup Kitchen and we have with us Associate Priest Luke Martinez. Welcome to the show, luke. Thank you for having me. Luke, we want to get an update on the status of the soup kitchen. We've had previous priests on the show before talking about the ministry and we know it's such an important one to Hanford in particular. So I thought, yeah, what an opportunity to kind of get an update and see where we're at.

Speaker 3:

Well, things are definitely better than they have been in the past. We're running a lot more smoothly and we appear to be out of the woods on funding for the most part, although our funding fluctuates so much we can never tell.

Speaker 2:

But right now we're in much better shape than we were two years ago really rallied behind the church and getting everything put back together and you have just countless volunteers. So let's kind of pull back the layers, if you will, and talk about the ministry of the Soup Kitchen. It's 38 years it's been serving Hanford. That's fantastic, and volunteers just make this thing happen. So tell us how everything comes together daily to feed the needy in our community.

Speaker 3:

So it's I mean, it's kind of semi-organized chaos. So the first thing is is our volunteers get here in the morning and they have to kind of prep based off of what we have, because we get our food from all kinds of sources in the community. Some things are what we call gleaned, which means that local supermarkets and restaurants donate us their extra stuff. Some of it is like approaching its sale by date, but they give it to us instead of it going away. We get some food from different federal and state programs and the biggest challenge, usually once we have our volunteer team in place, is the kind of jigsaw puzzle of what can we make out of what we have.

Speaker 3:

Some days we'll have an entire refrigerator of milk and some days we have no milk, you know, and some days we have lots of something and not as much of another. So a lot of the volunteers have to kind of hustle to figure out and our team leads are really great about this Like what are we going to cook? What are we? How are we going to make it? And then it's about getting it ready so that we can serve at 1130, because we are people know that we serve during the weekdays at 1130. So they're, you know they're lined up at 11. So we've got to be ready.

Speaker 2:

So you said it starts at 1130. How late do you serve lunch?

Speaker 3:

It's just from 1130 to 1230. It's a one hour window. Most of the people who come here in the town know it. On Sundays it's 1230 to 130.

Speaker 2:

Cause we have church stuff up until then but usually it's one hour every day and every day, yeah, every day. Let's talk numbers a little bit. I know that tracking numbers is an important part of the ministry, so you can see how effective it is. How many people, on average, are you serving?

Speaker 3:

Last year we had almost 60,000 meals that we served, I think our last month we were in. We were actually on track to pass that again. This year we were in like the 5,000 to 6,000 meals in the month range and obviously it fluctuates depending on season and things going on in society and stuff like that. But I think one thing that people don't realize is that not everybody that comes to us is unhoused. We have some people who are unhoused. We have some people who have, you know, addiction issues and are struggling with stuff like that, and we want to help them. We actually have quite a few people who are kind of on that borderline where you know a couple extra meals a week is going to really help them stretch their money a little. So they're hungry, yeah. So it gets like you know. So some months when it's a little leaner, I feel like it fluctuates a little and sometimes it goes down months when it's a little leaner.

Speaker 2:

I feel like it fluctuates a little and sometimes it goes down. So what makes the soup kitchen unique to the community? There's other organizations that serve food, but what makes it a unique? Uh, for the soup kitchen.

Speaker 3:

Um, I think what I would say, the most important thing, that is our, our ethos. Uh, you know, we, our motto is all are welcome, all are fed, so we don't turn anybody away. Um, I know there's other programs that are like that too, but for us we don't turn anyone away. We believe like this is, for us, is a Christian mission and you know, we think about you know, as the Bible says, Christ's love that surpasses all understanding, and so we believe to be that way. You've got to welcome everybody and it can be really complicated sometimes for people who are struggling with addiction or mental illness, but we still want to try to feed all of them.

Speaker 3:

So what really drives us is and try to set us apart from everyone is we don't ask questions and I I often say look, you can come in, look like a mountain man will serve you. You can come in the Ferrari wearing an Armani suit, we will feed you. We don't ask and and that's fine, and I invite people in the community If they want to see what we do come and eat, we will feed you. We're not going to say like, hey, you don't look needy enough or anything, because we've found that that's not a great way to go about it and you know it's not easy to gauge someone's entire existence and condition based off of what you see in both directions. So we really believe in that. The other part is every day. A lot of programs I'm sure would love to run every day, but there are a lot of them that run, you know, certain days of the week, or so often, or lunchtime, every day, 365 days a year.

Speaker 2:

That's an amazing commitment to the citizens of Hanford. We talked a little bit earlier about the location of the facility. Being in downtown plays an important part of how it operates.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's. I mean it's a big advantage for us in terms of visibility, but it's also advantage for us in terms of accessibility. Obviously, a lot of our for our unhoused population. It's easier to have a central place and we're close to places like the library that have other resources and we're close to places like the library that have other resources.

Speaker 3:

It's helpful for us in some ways because, you know, we feel like we have an extra layer of security, because we're lucky enough to have, you know, the police stations right across from us and a lot of times, because you know, a lot of the meetings for the city are near us, we get to see a lot of the people in town, a lot of the city leadership and the people who are active here. So it gives us a real good location for that and it's kind of it's just kind of a happy accident. You know it was built here when the city was growing. You know the church was built 1910 and dedicated 1911. And so the city has kind of grown. We've grown with Hanford right, so so we left us right in the middle of town, which works out really good for us. And it's also usually helpful because if people get lost and driving around downtown, they'll see us.

Speaker 2:

Oftentimes we'll drive by and we'll see other organizations here participating in outreach to the people that are coming. Can you tell us a little bit about what resources are also available here Besides for just getting a good hot meal to eat? What other resources are sometimes here so?

Speaker 3:

one of our big partners and like group that really helps us out a lot is Valley Voices. They've done some stuff here in terms of, like, voter turnout registration, but they also do vaccination clinics. So obviously when COVID was going much stronger, they were here for that, but they've been able to do flu vaccines too. We actually have several organizations that are from the Valley, um, or from this, the South Valley, that are trying to help out and they'll come and set up, um you know, little booths or tables on how to do outreach for people, Um, we also have volunteers from a lot of other faith communities in town, Um, a lot of those faith communities.

Speaker 3:

You know we don't always all agree theologically, but we all agree we want to feed people. So we get a lot of help from them and, and you know, and do the mission together. So a lot of them come and we can direct them to the ministries. A lot of them have some of those churches, have laundry ministries or shower ministries like that. So you know, we have a wide variety and that's one thing we're always open to to as partnerships. If someone thinks they can serve the population we serve and they want to come down here, we will give you a place to set up so you can help people, because it definitely is a central location for a lot of people who kind of need resources from the community.

Speaker 2:

But we know how to fulfill the needs of the people and I think that speaks volumes for what you do and what other organizations and towns do. That's a wonderful network of support that you have.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean for me personally as the you know, the clerical leadership here.

Speaker 3:

A lot of it goes back to that CS Lewis mere Christianity idea. It's like ultimately we're bound by certain beliefs, common assumptions, you know, about how we should help other people and look out for people. And we have a lot of people who are not from faith communities who come in here, who are just good people who want to help people out, and so it's always an interesting group because we have people from different faith backgrounds, from different national backgrounds, people who've been patrons here before, who've now kind of gotten things better in their life, but now they want to come and give back. We have some people who have to volunteer because they have community service but choose to do with us. We have some we have. One of our favorite groups right now is foreign exchange students. They have to do a certain amount of community service so they come and serve and it's really neat to see them meeting different people and interacting with the kids the other kids from different countries right in our kitchen in our kitchen.

Speaker 2:

you know that's great. You mentioned all these volunteers coming through and I know people automatically think, oh, where can I serve? And it's always soup kitchen. You know it's at the forefront of a lot of people's minds, which is awesome. How do people get involved? If they want to volunteer, can they just show up, or would you like to have them contact you through the website? What's the best way to do that?

Speaker 3:

We're not. You know, we don't like to turn people away at all. If we can help it because there's always so much to do. Um, for the most part, the best way is to go to the website, has a lot of instructions on there. But if you come down in person, we serve every day from 1130 to 1230. Because of that, our volunteers are usually here between nine and 10 in the morning, um, so if you come down, then when people hear and say I want to volunteer, they can get you all the forms, get you signed up.

Speaker 3:

Um, what we really the issue we have is we have a pretty good amount of volunteers on Saturdays, because that's a day a lot of people have available, obviously, and we have a couple of good crews, like Monday and Tuesday, our crews are pretty solid. But the other days of the week it gets a little thin. So part of the issue we run into is not the number of volunteers, it's equally distributing them across all seven days. So if people especially have and we know it's hard with people's work schedules and stuff but if people availability, especially at those last days of the week the Wednesday, thursday, fridays, um, or Sundays that's where we really need the most help and, honestly, you don't have to come in and know how, to have to know how to cook. We usually are good on people who can cook and we, in a pinch, we've got lots of recipe books and stuff.

Speaker 3:

Um, but what we, you know there's always something someone can do, like we really believe strongly that everyone's got a talent we can use. So you, you know, maybe you go wash the dishes, maybe you're taking out the trash, maybe you're serving people, maybe you're busing tables. Um, maybe you're serving the food. Maybe you're busing tables, maybe you're serving the food, maybe you're outside helping people get. We have a, we have a clothes ministry, we call St Francis's closet, so we give away a lot of clothing. So, you know, maybe we're gonna need you to do that. And you know we can never tell what we're going to need or what it's going to come up. So if some people I think they sometimes think I don't know the soup kitchen, I don't know how to cook, like, don't worry, we will, we will find a way to use you.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. I know serving that many meals over the course of 365 days or so is wear and tear on the equipment and I know that equipment issues have been an issue in the past. What's the current situation and maybe you could give a couple of shout outs to some of the organizations who have done work to repair equipment and maybe some needs that you might have for equipment.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, our big donors really we've had several. We actually have a lot in here and we try to recognize them. Leprino Foods had done a big donation to us that helped us get a lot of our lights and fans set up because we were not quite up to code, which is a kind of a side thing that people don't realize that we have to be up to code, like a normal restaurant is, even though we don't make money. So it's kind of tough because we have to meet all the same standards that a full service restaurant does but we don't make money off of it. The rotary recently got us a new dishwasher. We had all they gave us double the size and it was all brand new. We've gotten some help from different groups, which now I'm suddenly drawing a blank on our floors and some stuff like that. But you know, a lot of local groups have been involved. You know other churches, so many local groups, and on top of that lots of donations have come to from just you know, regular folks in the community. When we had our kind of funding issues Sometimes people would be like hey, I have 20 bucks, I want to donate it, and to me those. You know every dollar helps. But that also means a lot to me that some people they gave out of what, the generosity, that of what they had, right, this is what I can help with. So I'm going to help with it and we're just, you know, we're so grateful for that. And then, you know, we have a big picture, a big thing up there of our our check from Loprino, who really helped us out, and we've got a big sticker that goes on our our rotary dishwasher, because that's it's a really great. It's like a cool dishwasher too, like I'm not a kitchen guy but I I like big machines. So I'm like, ooh, dishwasher, that's great.

Speaker 3:

And we also talked about the need for sustaining contributions, not just, you know, $500 here. Beyond that there's the scope of the amount of equipment we have to use and things we have to do to set it up, the maintenance on the area. You know we're constantly having to fix things just from wear and tear of people coming in and out and so like when we got all those donations, especially when it looked like we were going to maybe lose the soup kitchen, there was so much generosity and so many people helped us out. But you know, it's really great to have a continuing donation, and one reason because of that is because of how the grants are.

Speaker 3:

Grants tend to be given out a couple times a year, so we'll have like this bulge of grants at one point and it'll be real good, and then it'll go kind of dry for a while and then we have a bulge of grants and if we have regular continuing donations it kind of helps keep things smooth between those sets of grants. Because usually what happens what's happened most years the soup kitchen has been open is that the summer is usually when the grants are low, and so usually in the summer the church ends up floating the soup kitchen, which is we're glad to do because that's our mission, but sometimes it causes us to have to give up things in the church to do it. Yeah for sure.

Speaker 2:

You know, luke, the community appreciates this ministry so much. I mean 38 years. That's a huge commitment to the community and I want to thank you for coming on the show. And in closing, can you kind of give us a pitch about why the soup kitchen is so important and it's such an important vision of the Episcopal Church of the Savior here in Hanford?

Speaker 3:

Well it's such an important vision of the Episcopal Church of the Savior here in Hanford. Well, it's important to us because we believe that the church is not. You know that church is about community and about serving your neighbor right. And so at the end of the day, we've got to serve our neighbors and we believe that the church isn't just for us who go to church here, but for everyone that's in the community, and so we want to try to always shepherd our resources in the way that's to the good of the most people, and this is how we've been able to do it so far and we want to keep doing it.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's the big brick church on Doughty Street, as we say, the website is ecsaviororg, that's E-C-S-A-V-I-O-U-R dot org. And thank you once again, luke, for coming on the show, and we wish you the best of luck.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, and now it's time for hampered insider sports with Eric Bentley. Believe it or not, the Central Section playoff brackets will be set this week, with many of our basketball and soccer teams on track to earn a playoff berth. So let's check in as we head into the final week of the regular season. In girls basketball, a pair of presumptive playoff teams look to stay hot, and they actually played each other last week Sierra Pacific and Hanford West. And it was Sierra Pacific who came out on top en route to a perfect 3-0 week last week, taking down the Huskies along with Selma and Bakersfield Christian, to stay in first place in Tri-County Kings Canyon League play at 6-1 and 18-8 overall. The Golden Bears will play Kerman in their regular season finale on Tuesday. For Hanford West, the setback to the Golden Bears was short-lived, as they took down Kingsburg 58-27 in their next game. The loss to Sierra Pacific was not a league game, so the Huskies stay undefeated in Tri-County Sequoia League play at 7-0 and 16-7 overall, as they'll close their regular season out against Washington Union on Tuesday. And Hanford High fell in both of their games last week, as the Bullpups will close out their regular season with a rivalry matchup with Lemoore on Tuesday. In boys basketball, hanford High improved to 17-9 overall, with a 67-53 win versus Tulare Western, before taking down Mission Oak 82-59. The Bullpups will face off against Lemoore to close out their regular season on Tuesday. The Sierra Pacific boys find themselves in second place in the Tri-County Kings League at 5-3, splitting their two games last week, falling to CVC before taking down Selma. The Golden Bears will clash with Hanford West on Wednesday to end their regular season. As for the Huskies, the matchup with Sierra Pacific will be a chance to put a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing season after falling to Exeter and Kerman last week.

Speaker 1:

And let's head out to soccer where, on the girls' side, hanford High suffered a rare defeat, falling to Tulare Western 2-1, but then bouncing back with a resounding 6-0 victory over Mission Oak At 8-1 in the WYL and with a 21-3 overall record, a playoff spot seems all but guaranteed, headed into a rivalry tilt with Lemoore on Tuesday. The Sierra Pacific girls split their two games last week, taking down Emanuel 4-2, before being bested by Kerman. The Golden Bears find themselves sitting atop the Tri-County Sequoia League at 4-0 and 3, heading into their regular season finale with the Huskies on Wednesday. Hanford West also split their two games last week, both one-goal differentials, falling to Selma 2-1 before taking down Emmanuel 4-3. The matchup with Sierra Pacific this week will give Hanford West a chance to finish the regular season above .500, as they sit at 8-8-4 overall In boys

Speaker 1:

soccer. Hanford High won both of their games last week, taking down Tulare Western 3-2 and Mission Oak 4-2. The Bullpups sit at 5-3-1 in the WIL, headed into the regular season finale versus Lemoore on Tuesday. The Sierra Pacific boys remain atop the Tri-County Sequoia League at 5-0-2, after taking down Kingsburg 2-0 before falling to Kerman 3-0. They'll close out their regular season with a matchup against Hanford West on Tuesday. As for the Huskies, after playing CVC to a draw and falling to Kingsburg, the matchup this week with the Golden Bears will serve as an opportunity to end the season on a high note. And a couple of quick shoutouts to close close things out. A shout-out to the Hanford West wrestling team as they finished fourth in the Tri-Central Conference League tournament and a shout-out to the Hanford West boys JV soccer team for going undefeated in Tri-County Sequoia League play. As always, we like to cover as many local sports as possible, so if you have a score report or a story idea, make sure to email hanfordinsider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show. If you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffeecom slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by my website at hanfordinsidercom to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each week. I also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. By liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show, you can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll look into it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

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