Iher Procyk waits to get in line for a holiday meal at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission on Wednesday.
Bill Barlow
ATLANTIC CITY -- "You'll never starve in Atlantic City," said Theresa Rosario as she got to work on a plate loaded with turkey, ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce Wednesday.
Christmas Day was a little warmer for some who gathered at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission for a holiday dinner.
A line stretched around the room to the entrance. Staff at the mission asked that women be served first, with the women staying at the shelter getting priority. Rosario stayed in the main dining room. She described herself as a South Philly girl who came to Atlantic City to stay with her grandmother.
After her grandmother's death, she said, everything started to go wrong. She has been homeless for about two years, and without the Rescue Mission's event, she would have nowhere to be Christmas Day.
"It's good," she said. "I'm happy to be here."
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The event has been taking place for many years, said Dan Brown, the mission's CEO and president.
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Ocean Casino Resort teams with Boys & Girls Club to prepare meals for peers, homeless
Ocean Casino Resort brought members of its culinary team to the Atlantic City Boys & Girls Club on Wednesday to offer a cooking class and help members of the club prepare and deliver holiday treats and meals to the city's homeless as well as at-risk youths at the Atlantic City Covenant House.
"Anyone can come. As long as we have food, they can eat," said Curtis Gunn, a chaplain at the mission who checked people in at the front desk. They ask that people be patient and understand there are a lot of people waiting for food.
Iher Procyk said he didn't mind waiting "until things calm down." His wife, Ada Weed, was already eating. He said he spends more time in Upstate New York, but they were in Atlantic City and stayed at the shelter after the temperatures dropped and a Code Blue was declared, which is when the city opens its warming centers to the unhoused and those without working heat.
The mission began 60 years ago as both a ministry and an effort to meet the physical needs of those who need it most, with shelter, food, counseling and structured programs.
Brown said he has been involved with the mission since the 1970s, beginning as a volunteer and later taking a leadership position.
He said a recent project at the mission was aimed at making the building more welcoming and less institutional. The shelter was one of the few in New Jersey that remained operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brown said the mission did extensive research to keep the guests and staff safe.
"We learned everything we could about the coronavirus. We bought the right equipment," he said, and set policies to ensure safety within the shelter.
Contact Bill Barlow:
609-272-7290
Twitter @jerseynews_bill
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