Walking into the First Baptist soup kitchen on Cortez is like walking into a hug: warm, hospitable and friendly. 

 

The strong fragrance of kitchen cleaner pervades the air and stings your nose for a couple minutes until you get used to it.

Patty Rummage, a 67 year old retired school teacher bustles up to you and pulls you into a warm, plump embrace. You hear someone yell, “Patty!” at the top of his lungs and she’s off again- not to be seen for the next hour.

“The soup kitchen was prayed into existence…and the next twenty some years is history,” Rummage said Monday afternoon during the weekly outreach to the homeless.

The Prescott First Baptist church has taken on the responsibility of feeding the homeless every Monday at 5 p.m. Being one of the only soup kitchens in town (besides the Salvation Army) there has been many ups and downs over the past twenty odd years. 

“Once in a while we run short on money. Sometimes a volunteer will be a little too bossy in the kitchen,” Rummage said. But added that, “We don’t have many problems.” 

“We have felt a price crunch with the price of groceries. We do have more people than before. We rarely dip below 100 people.”

She has attended the First Baptist Church her entire life and says she does the soup kitchen because, “I feel called in scripture to feed the poor as Jesus did with the loaves and fishes.” 

Rummage exudes hospitality. “I like to cook for people and entertain them. I love seeing people come together and work to help others.” 

The soup kitchen is only in existence because of the hard work of volunteers such as Lisa Brownlie, 30, a youth worker for the First Baptist Church who has been serving at the soup kitchen “on and off for ten years.” Brownlie says the soup kitchen is “the place I feel the most at home.” 

After pulling on a apron and putting on gloves, the work begins. Cutting bagels, bagging bread and making over 200 cupcakes is a normal occurrence here. 

Randy Goodsell, 42, a volunteer who also works at the Prescott Public Library and Target, affectionately says he works at the soup kitchen “because Patty’s the best.” 

The economy has effected the soup kitchen, “We have felt a price crunch with the of price of groceries. We do have more people than before. We rarely dip below 100 people,” said Rummage. 

Although they have had their share of problems Rummage said, “It is my joy to have been involved since the beginning.” And adds that, “Anyone able and interested is welcome to help.”

Photos by Frances Karl