Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Betty Williamson A bit of good news
For the past 15 years, the serving staff for large banquet-style events at Eastern New Mexico University often includes young people from the New Mexico Christian Children’s Home in Portales. This Sunday, Sodexo — Eastern’s food service provider — is saying thank you by offering a Mother’s Day Brunch to the community that will also directly benefit its youngest servers.
Betty Williamson
A bit of good news
“We greatly value our partnership with the Christian Children’s Home,” said Wayne Doney, general manager of Sodexo ENMU. NMCCH youth typically serve at large events like the Altrusa Holiday Happening and the Friends of Music Pops Concert. Doney said those additional hands help “make our events a success by achieving a level of customer satisfaction we couldn’t do with our staff alone.”
Sodexo is pulling out all the stops on Sunday to show its gratitude to the kids. The buffet-style menu has more than three dozen items ranging from build-your-own omelets to chocolate-dipped strawberries. Not into eggs? No problem. How about chef-carved roast beef, oven-roasted turkey, rotisserie pork, southern fried chicken, or fried shrimp?
The Crossroads Café on the main floor of Eastern’s Campus Union Building will be all gussied up with white linen tablecloths and fresh flowers. While you linger over an extra helping of garlic mashed potatoes, or help yourself to another pastry from “The Bake Shoppe,” you can savor the sweet sounds of live jazz music played by Richard Schwartz, Travis Erwin, and Terry Burns.
But mostly importantly, Doney said, remember that the event will help support a worthy cause. Since its founding west of Portales in 1954, NMCCH “has been making a difference in children’s lives,” according to Tom Pittmon, director of public relations for the Home. NMCCH currently houses 37 children in residential homes, 12 house parent children, and 25 single parent children, Pittmon said.
Donations like this are “the lifeblood of our work,” Pittmon said. “NMCCH is entirely donor dependent. We live by the generosity of folks in our community, and from churches and organizations outside our immediate community.”
Here’s the catch: Tickets must be purchased in advance — by 6:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Hannah Spearman, Sodexo’s unit marketing coordinator, to allow “ample time to arrange reservations and ensure each customer gets the ultimate Mother’s Day experience.”
There will be three seatings on Sunday, at 10:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m., and 12 noon. Tickets are $20 for adults, and $14 for children ages 5-12 or those who are 65 and older. Children under the age of 5 eat for free. Tickets may be purchased online at https://enmu.sodexomyway.com/shop, or in person at the Crossroads Café. If you have questions, call 575-562-2809.
Great food, live music, a worthy cause, and I don’t have to cook or clean up. What’s not to love?
Betty Williamson will not promise to leave any eclairs for those who come behind her. You may reach her at:
