For decades, San Luis Obispo Community Cares has ensured there’s a place homeless people can turn to for comfort on Christmas Day.
This year’s holiday feast at the SLO Vets Hall will be a far cry from how organizers Sheri Eibschutz and Naomi Blakely started in 1997—a meal served to the unhoused at the Grange Hall, with music playing from a boom box, paired with used clothing for the homeless to sort through.
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To volunteer, donate, or find out more about San Luis Obispo Community Cares, visit slocommunitycares.org.
When a media crew with rolling cameras arrived unannounced, upsetting the guests, Eibschutz and Blakely realized things needed to change.
“Since 1998, this event has been used as a means of outfitting the local unhoused community with brand new sleeping bags, warm winter clothing to help get through our winters,” said Eibschutz, now the CEO of SLO Community Cares. “The Jewish community was the backbone and continues to be the backbone of this event, but it has expanded considerably. … Numerous community members of all denominations helped make this happen in addition to the support of the local businesses, which has been really invaluable.”
The SLO Community Cares holiday feast grew from Temple Ner Shalom’s yearly tradition of providing Christmas Day meals to the homeless since 1985.
Over the years, other synagogues, people of different faiths, and community members have joined hands to provide food and clothing for unsheltered people. They serve an average of 600 meals and care packages in-house, with 100 to-go units, every year.
Old Mission School, for instance, worked on securing gloves for them. Los Osos Middle School helmed a sock drive. Talley Farms has been offering cabbage salad—made with cabbage it grows—for the holiday feast for two decades. The Morro Bay Lions Club will cook 16 turkeys for the feast this year.
Continuing its 20-year service to SLO Community Cares, Ride-On Transportation will pick up homeless people at 40 Prado, safe parking sites, and other frequented areas for the feast and drop them back, too.
The Odd Fellows Hall also donated the space to the nonprofit for the feast for many years, until SLO Community Cares made the switch to the larger Vets Hall because of the increased number of guests.
“I’d like to say after all these years [homelessness] has gone down, but no, it hasn’t gone down,” Eibschutz said. “I go out with an outreach worker every year in the weeks leading up to the event to help pass out flyers, and for me, it’s just so upsetting seeing these individuals residing by the freeway, their tents and sleeping bags are wet. It’s been challenging getting some community members to recognize that these individuals really need new warm winter clothing and new sleeping bags.”
Homelessness was on SLO Community Cares’ radar during the pandemic, too. While the holiday feast was paused, volunteers dropped off hundreds of meals and care packages for the homeless after the county Health Department approved clinical and public health microbiologist
Eibschutz’s safety plan.
Volunteer and nonprofit board member Kim Boege has been cooking turkeys and dropping off meals for roughly a decade. Spending Christmas morning with family and the rest of the day cooking and serving those in need has become a tradition for her.
“We had a little section where someone goes out and sees if there are younger kids, and then we wrap presents for them,” Boege said. “We get kind of an idea from the parents or whoever’s with the children. So, my daughter and I, for a few years, were present wrappers.”
Thanks to Boege and other volunteers, the feast features turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, cabbage salad, vegetable medleys, homemade cranberry sauce, 150 loaves of bread from San Luis Sourdough, butter, and around 90 pies.
Like they do every year, they will decorate the venue for the feast and make space for the live band to entertain guests.
They’re always looking for more hands to help. Sign up at slocommunitycares.org/sign-up to assist with cooking and volunteering. The sign-up link is active through Dec. 25.
“I would look for where a lot of stuff is missing,” Boege said. “You sign up, then they give you a time to drop off your food, they have someone greeting you and picking up the food. You basically don’t even have to get out of your car.”
Donations in the form of funding for new sleeping bags, hooded sweatshirts, winter jackets, wool beanies, scarves, gloves, socks, underwear, reusable drawstring bags, and toiletry bags can be made at slocommunitycares.org/donate.
“We were touched by the joy that it brought for unhoused individuals, actually anyone in the community, that knew about it,” Boege said. “We have fully home-cooked meals, decorated tables, live music, and even presents. … The recipients are so grateful that they’ve had a night or a few hours during Christmas Day of something that’s relaxing, warm, and yummy. It’s been a gift for me to help with this part of the community.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 20-30, 2025.