Bethany House is a settlement house, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, that assists the homeless and other indigent in Laredo

Laredo, Texas

Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...

 and Webb County

Webb County, Texas

Webb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The official 2010 population for the county is 250,304. In 2000, its population was 193,117, and in 2006 its population had been estimated to have reached to 231,470. Its county seat is Laredo...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. It was founded in 1982 by the Roman Catholic Father Charles M. McNaboe (1929-1996) as a soup kitchen

Soup kitchen

A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...

 to provide lunches to, originally, seventeen poor persons.

The facility expanded into a permanent location downtown at 819 Hidalgo Street as a result of the donation of land by the family of Maria B. Leyendecker. The main mission of the facility is to provide hot meals without charge to the indigent. There is also a Thrift and Vintage stores for clothing, the latter designed to provide higher quality outfits for the poor seeking employment. The soup lunch kitchen evolved into meal services three times daily.Bethany House offers extended services for home-delivered meals and for "Kid’s Cafes", an outreach to children, mostly at public housing centers and at the Lamar Bruni Vergara Boys and Girls Club.

In August 2002, Bethany House acquired a second nearby property to establish the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Resource Center and Emergency Shelter, named for a late philanthropic couple from Laredo.

Since a national recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

 began late in 2007, more families have sought assistance from Bethany House, according to its then director, Barbara Kazen (1941-2011), wife of U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen.In November 2008, Laredo observed "National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week." Laredo Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 Raul Salinas led a public march to draw attention to the plight of the needy: "Right now, we are living through very difficult times, but Laredo is a very special city. It's a city where those who have less are always willing to give the shirts off their backs to help others. We must get through this crisis. We must think positive."

Approximately a third of Laredo residents live at the poverty level, but donations from citizens and business groups beyond Bethany's budget have enabled the settlement house to expand its operations. For instance, in 2008, Mrs. Kazen received a grant from United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...

 to help the organization establish services for the unemployed.

Bethany House remained open through Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

2009 with additional mattresses placed inside the cafeteria to meet high capacity needs.

Each year Bethany House serves more than 297,000 meals and five million pounds of food.