Vernon Isaac, assistant cook at the soup kitchen gets ready to serve from hot veggies.
Story and photos by Ted Waddell
MONTICELLO – It’s a good thing to fill a hungry mon’s belly.
From April 2008 to April 2009, the soup kitchen served more than 34,000 meals.
“When I come into this kitchen, it’s like I’m a king on a throne,” said Vernon Isaac, assistant cook at the soup kitchen run by the Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless (SCFH).
Along the way, he’s been homeless, worked as cook in Harlem, and cooked for the homeless for three years at the Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter for men and women in Massachusetts before coming to the county’s only soup kitchen about a year ago.
“I’ve been there, done that between the bad times and the good, and I’ve been homeless at times,” said Isaac.
“I know what these folks are going through, it’s a tough life mon.”
Herbert Hovencamp III isn’t homeless, but he enjoys a free nutritious lunch on his day off.
If you want to get a read on if homelessness is on the rise, ask a guy who been there, a cook who serves meals to folks down on their luck.
“I guess it’s the economy,” said Isaac. “Nobody have no work, nobody have no jobs for the homeless, and it’s getting worse.”
“Every day I see more people in here every week, it’s just brand new faces…I know the regulars.”
Isaac said he goes home and sleeps well because of the satisfaction he gets from serving meals to folks in need, whether they’re ‘homeless’ or just hungry for a piping hot meal.
Isaac knows his way around the streets, and with that perspective in mind, has an idea of what makes some people tick.
Luis Rodrigues, head cook at the soup kitchen.
“I realize that a lot of crime goes on, because a mon who can’t find nothin’ to eat might say to himself, ‘If I have my stomach full, I don’t think about nothin’ else, and I don’t break the law’.”
“If a mon hungry enough, he’ll do whatever he can to feed himself,” said Isaac. “Not that it’s right, but sometimes he has no other choice. If a mon’s stomach is full and he has a warm jacket on his back, it’s all right.”
From April 2008 to April 2009, the soup kitchen served more than 34,000 meals and handed out over 6,000 pantry bags.
During the winter warm clothing is a welcome ‘side dish’ at the soup kitchen.
Everyone is welcome to eat at the soup kitchen, although there are eligibility requirements for the food pantry; individuals can’t have incomes more than 185% of the poverty rate, and must provide proof of household size, and proof of income.
The soup kitchen serves hot/cold breakfasts Monday-Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and hot lunches Monday-Friday from 12 noon until 1:00 p.m.
The food pantry is open every Friday, while emergency food pantries are 24/7 (call 845-798-8774).
For more information about the SCFH soup kitchen, call 845-794-2604
To view more photos from Homeless in the Land of Plenty – Part VIII visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.
The Catskill Chronicle 
I’m so impressed by these articles. So many people don’t know how bad the homelessness issue is in Sullivan County. This has always been a taboo subject here, thank you for bringing it out in the open.