SANDWICH ‘COLONEL’ IS WRAPPING UP
Army vet ending 12 years of running Interfaith charity’s weekly lunch bag, breakfast brigades
ESCONDIDO
This Sunday will be like any other over the past 12 years for Michael Fontes.
In the afternoon, the 71year-old Army veteran will lead fellow volunteers at Interfaith Community Services in Escondido in making 150 sack lunches for the homeless. Then he’ll return the next morning at 4:30 a.m. to prepare and serve breakfast for up to 200 homeless and recovering men and women.
But this Sunday will be unique from all those that came before because it will be his last. After 624 Sundays, 12,000 loaves of bread and nearly 94,000 sandwiches, Fontes is moving on.
He’s excited to explore new ways to volunteer his time, but the helpers and staff he’s leaving behind say Fontes is irreplaceable. “The Colonel,” as he’s known in the kitchen, has not only organized the lunch-baggers brigade over the past dozen years. He and his wife, Jane, have also self-funded almost all of the meat, cheese and condiments in the sandwiches.
Most of the volunteers assembling sandwiches with Fontes this past Sunday were recruited from his church, St. Timothy’s Catholic parish in Escondido, including Kathy Mccormick and her husband, Michael. Kathy described
Fontes as dependable, conscientious and an upbeat, talkative man who gives everyone a hug of thanks when they leave.
“He’s the backbone of the operation here on Sundays,” she said.
Volunteer Barbara Arnold, a St. Timothy’s parishioner for 18 years, said she fears that when Fontes goes, the meat sandwiches will go, too, because nobody has the same drive to fund it and keep the bagging program going.
“He would give the shirt off his back to anyone,” Arnold said. “He and Jane carry the ministry more than anyone else here.”
Fontes is a member of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis, a lay organization of the Catholic Church whose members volunteer time ministering to and caring for the needs of the sick and impoverished. Over the years, he has volunteered as a hospital and prison chaplain, built homes in Mexico with Habitat for Humanity and Project Mercy and taught religious education.
He was drawn to Interfaith in the early 2000s because much of the clientele it served at the time was homeless veterans. As a retired Army lieutenant colonel, he felt a strong desire to serve this population. When he noticed one day the soggy peanut butterand-jelly sandwiches the
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