As prices at grocery stores rise, a community dinner in Pilsen helps to feed those in need and unites: ‘We know what it feels like to be hungry’

For more than a year, Jesus Galvan roamed the streets of Chicago, lost to substance abuse and financial difficulties. He and his family were borderline homeless, he said. Thanks to the help and guidance of strangers, Galvan and his family got back on their feet.

Now Galvan and his wife, Mercedes Guzman, are doing the same for others. From time to time, the couple takes a break from selling their homemade tamales at Racine Avenue and 47th Street early in the morning, to make some tamales to help feed the homeless or other people in need.

“We know what it feels like to be hungry,” Galvan said as he invited people to grab a tamale — or two — on a Tuesday night in the Pilsen neighborhood.

The couple had made nearly 200 tamales to donate for a free community dinner that takes place every Tuesday since November 2021, at Hope Church. As gas prices increased and inflation hits the pockets of area families, the Tuesday dinner has become an important part of the neighborhood, feeding more than 100 people from diverse backgrounds week after week.

For some, it is the only hot meal they get for the week. For others, it is the only time they don’t eat alone.

“This is not just for the homeless or those in dire need,” said Galvan as his wife passed out tamales. “It is a space for elders who live alone, single people, families that are struggling financially despite having a good job in these times, It’s for everyone,”

The couple wokeup at 4 a.m. to prepare the pork and chicken tamales with green and red salsa. “We are grateful for what we have now and we are so happy to help,” Guzman said.

Since the very first dinner in early November of 2021, the number of attendees has nearly doubled this summer, said Benjamin Arias,one of the members of the church and lead chef of the community dinners in Pilsen. Arias worked in the Chicago restaurant industry for more than a decade before volunteering his time to the church, he said.

It all began with hosting a Taco Tuesday and only about 30 attendees. The dinners are now a full course meal and more than 100 people attend every week. Though the menu is determined by the donations, most times it’s a traditional Mexican dish, Arias said.

“We try to make it reflective of the community that we serve,” he said.

A group of members and volunteers of Hope Church — a Christian institution with headquarters in La Grange and several other campuses in the Chicago area — began mobilizing to find a way to help those in need as the pandemic disproportionately affected communities of color in 2020. That’s when the church invested in building a commercial kitchen in their Pilsen campus, at 1809 S. Racine Ave.,intending to cook for the community.

Though the meals are funded by donations to the church, Arias said that the dinners are not a “pool to fill Sunday’s service.”

“Regardless of their faith, everyone is welcomed,” he said. The group also delivers food on Tuesday evenings at the Marquette Park Fieldhouse, 6743 S. Kedzie Ave. More than 50 meals and some other groceries are distributed weekly.

Alpidia Fierro has lived in the Pilsen neighborhood for nearly 50 years and considers herself a religious, Catholic woman. But her home is right in front of Hope Church so she attends the dinner every week, she said.

“Everyone is so nice to me and the food is great,” said Pili, as her neighbors call her while sitting with her husband outside their home. “The work that they do is so great for the people that live in the area and have nowhere to go.”

Pili said that the dinners have unified the people in the community and are particularly important as more people struggle with higher prices at grocery stores.

For Jasmine Placencia, a single mother of two girls and also a longtime Pilsen resident, the dinners have been a blessing.

“Everyone is suffering one way or another and this is one thing we can count on: every Tuesday a free meal,” she said.

As the world began opening up after being harshly hit by COVID-19, the need for food and the hunger of those in need became more evident and urgent, said Dawn Kooistra, a senior pastor at the church.

The vision, Kooistra said, is to open other community dinners throughout different Chicago neighborhoods by establishing partnerships the way they have in Pilsen and Marquette Park.

“What we have witnessed is that people are hungry for food and fellowship, but also spiritual hunger,” she said.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com