SECOND ROUND GRANTEES
Denver Inner City Parish
DICP will use these funds to provide food pick-up and delivery to vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 crisis. DICP distributes 420 pre-packaged food boxes each week to participants, including deliveries to older adults, individuals who are self-quarantining, and those without access to transportation.
Funding from the Colorado COVID-19 Emergency Hunger Relief Fund will provide critical support for the costs of the food, supplies, personal protection equipment, transportation, and increased staffing necessary to meet increased community need and scale the capacity of the home delivery program as more people are required to self-quarantine.
Arvada Community Food Bank, Inc. dba Community Table
Funds will be used to purchase food and the boxes needed to safely distribute. Our traditional source of food—in-kind donations from grocers and wholesalers—has all but disappeared due to the COVID crisis. The Food Bank is purchasing the majority of food they distribute from Food Bank of the Rockies and other sources.
They have eliminated all requirements and documentation to receive food. ANYONE who drives or walks up will receive food including people experiencing homelessness. For those unable to visit our facility, food will be delivered directly to homes.
Denver Rescue Mission
DRM is an “essential service” that must continue to serve its emergency services guests who desperately need help every day, even as other businesses are shuttered and hundreds of volunteers are no longer allowed in the shelters. DRM is working with federal and local officials to implement a rapid and effective response, and is doing everything it can to mitigate spread of the virus, while addressing the 23.5% increase in demand for hot meals at the shelters for the first three months of 2020, with virtually all of that increase related to the COVID-19 emergency.
Living Water Ministry Outreach (Aurora)
Living Water Ministry Outreach has fed people in need along the East Colfax corridor in Aurora and Denver. Through mobile outreach, they provide sack lunches, water, additional food, clothing, supplies, and resource navigation to people experiencing homelessness, day laborers, immigrants, refugees, people living in motels, low income families and individuals, older adults, and people of color.
SecorCares (Parker)
SECORCares provides food and services to people in need. They shifted the free food market model to a drive thru concept since the inception of this pandemic to minimize contact and efficiently serve more hungry people. An individual can drive up to the facility and will have their car loaded with enough free groceries to last 10-14 days, alleviating the financial stress of having to provide groceries during this time and ensuring they have what they need to safely quarantine. They also have a mobile free food market we are taking into areas to feed people who can't physically get to us (isolated senior citizens, high density/low income housing, and school aged children especially.)
Second Chance Center, Inc. (Aurora)
In normal times, 100+ hot lunches are served daily at SCC; the onsite pantry supplies at least 50 people daily with a 2-3 day supply of groceries. Now they are using grant funds for daily sack lunches. On Fridays, sacks of perishable and non-perishable food sufficient for 2-3 days will be provided. Since March 1, the mobile pantry has supplied residents of our supportive housing (PATH) perishable & non-perishable foods. At the end of February, 47 adults and 13 children, all previously homeless, moved into the 49 apartments. These people are exceptionally vulnerable; some are elderly, many are in poor health from living on the streets and/or serving long prison sentences, and we have single-parent families with young children. Fresh food is needed to keep them healthy. Food deliveries help them to shelter in place during the COVID emergency.
Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation (Aurora)
In response to COVID19 and to mitigate spread, Children's Hospital Colorado shifted its food clinic to a mobile grocery distribution operation called Healthy Roots Mobile. On March 23, in collaboration with Food Bank of the Rockies and Aurora Public Schools, Healthy Roots Mobile began providing families with bags of groceries containing 2-3 days’ worth of food. On average, they distribute 185 bags per day at 13 locations including schools, a mobile home community (Hillcrest), and a park (Tierra Park), serving ~1,200 families.
They are also screening for food insecurity at all well-child and sick visits in our primary care clinics and distributing bags as necessary. In the first week of this new approach, they distributed 64 grocery bags.
With unemployment claims skyrocketing and health officials predicting a COVID surge still to come, Healthy Roots Mobile will be needed for some time. Grants funds ensure they can provide this critical basic need while minimizing difficult decisions on what to prioritize at a time when hospital resources are urgently needed for an expansive community health response.
Bridge House (Boulder)
Bridge House’s social enterprise, Community Table Kitchen (CTK), provides free meals for adults experiencing homelessness and others who are food-insecure. In 2019, they served over 43,000 meals to approximately 1300 unique individuals. They have seen an increase in new attendees in the past few weeks and anticipate even more attendees as adults experiencing homelessness continue to have limited options for meals and more individuals become food-insecure. For many, this is the only option for a daily meal. The building site for meals also provides opportunities for handwashing and restroom accommodations.
Amazing Grace Community Church Pastor's Pantry (Thornton)
Before the current health emergency, they were serving 300 families a month. Now that has increased to over 700 for March, representing 3178 individuals. Amazing Grace Community Church is a small group, with a membership of 110 people. They fund this program through the generous giving but the mounting increase is straining our resources. They now need 28,000 pounds a month, minimally, but the requests for more help is common.
Father Woody’s Haven of Hope (Denver)
Now more than ever there is a significant need for services geared towards homeless individuals throughout Colorado. Per the 2019 Point in Time survey there are over 5,700 individuals experiencing homelessness in the Denver Metro area. Due to the prevalence of homelessness, Father Woody’s Haven of Hope provides much needed basic and emergency aid to a highly vulnerable population. With other shelters limiting services during the pandemic, Father Woody's is serving an increased number of guests. One of the signature services Father Woody’s offers is restaurant-style meals. Rather than waiting in line for their food, guests are seated and served a meal by volunteers and staff, restoring a sense of dignity. Father Woody’s provides hot breakfast, a hot, four-course lunch, and a sack lunch for clients who work in the community.
Denver Compost Collective LLC
Denver Compost Collective is currently using the company's box truck and (some hours paid, some hours volunteer) delivery driver to do weekly food pickups and dropping off at 4 pantries, as well as a few scattered family groups, on the order of 5,000 lbs or more (up to 4 pallets) per week, ultimately serving hundreds of individuals and families per week. Part of the request for funding is to cover the cost of labor/fuel/maintenance so they can continue these weekly trips.
None of the existing community pantry partners have cooler/freezer space, so the bulk of the funding request is for purchasing two used 5'x8' enclosed trailers, and installing insulation and a custom refrigeration unit with remote-controlled temperature control ("Cool Bot"). This way they can provide safe transport and short-term storage of frozen foods throughout the warmer spring/summer/fall months without risking spoilage, as well as better preserving produce and other refrigerated goods.
Denver Indian Center
The Denver Indian Center, Inc. (DICI) was founded in 1975 by Native Americans as a direct result of the Federal Government Indian Relocation Act of 1956 or Public Law 959. This was a law intended to encourage American Indians to leave reservations and their traditional lands and to assimilate into the general population in urban areas. Denver was one of the original cities identified as an urban destination. For the past 45 years, the Denver Indian Center has served the Denver area as the hub of American Indian activity, engagement and support. The DICI needs this emergency funding because they are at capacity with respect to the support we provide the community through our small food bank. Currently, they serve approximately 120 families with a TEFAP food distribution once a month, and approximately 30 seniors (60 yrs or older) with a CSFP commodity box once a month. Although this food support is considered supplemental, they are predicting that it will evolve into more of a primary source of food as the economic situation caused by COVID-19 continues to cause loss of jobs and income. Over the next several months they project that the need will triple from what they are currently providing, and especially with older or senior constituents.
Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center (Denver)
With long standing health and economic disparities, COVID-19 is hitting minority communities especially hard. Funding would support the immediate needs of this population through distribution of nutritious food, primarily to the African American/Black community. The Our daily "Let's Talk" social media broadcast reaches thousands with timely information. With this emergency funding, they will prepare and deliver nutritious meals to community members; including the homeless, elderly, and people living with HIV prepared in our commercial grade kitchen in the cultural center. They have the ability to prepare 100 meals per day.
Vivent Health (Denver)
Vivent Health will use these funds to support changes in operation for our onsite food pantry during the COVID-19 crisis. Vivent Health typically provides access to an on-site food pantry for any person who is living with HIV, receives services at Vivent Health, and lives at or below 500% of the federal poverty level (FPL). During the COVID-19 crisis, Vivent Health has transitioned to 75% home delivery and 25% curbside pickup to contribute to social distancing measures and limit exposure for our patients, clients, and staff.
Shorter Community AME Church (Denver)
In light of the pandemic many of the older adults they serve live in food deserts and are having a difficult time finding healthy meals due to the restraint of movement and shelter in place requirements. It is the goal to serve 500+ Older adults who are impacted in this pandemic by health limitations, lack of transportation and lack of need funds and resources.
Karis Community (Denver)
Nearly 100% of Community Members are low-income individuals sitting well-below the poverty line. At least 40% have been homeless at some point in their lifetime and 16% were homeless immediately prior to joining Karis. Over 75% utilize Medicaid, disability and food stamps among other public support. The low fees associated with our Empowerment Program mean that it is accessible to a diverse group of individuals. Karis has community members from all ethnic backgrounds, genders, ages and stages of life. Emergency funding will enable their organization to continue offering meals six nights per week to community members. These meals serve up to 25 people per night.
Longmont Food Rescue
Longmont Food Rescue provides free, nutritious food to feed hungry, homeless, and food insecure populations in Longmont. A primary source of the food they distribute from April-November is from the Longmont Farmers Market. Due to COVID-19 measures, the market is not operating as normal, and all food being distributed requires pre-ordering for pick-up each week. This measure does not allow for the typical donations they receive from the farmers of their excess produce. Additionally, the Boulder County Farmers Market initiative to allocate produce for food rescue organizations like theirs is only providing these resources to Boulder City organizations, due to funding and donation rules.
This emergency funding would allow the pre-purchase of food from the Longmont Farmers Market for clients for the next two months, feeding up to 850 people in the community. This funding would provide a vital source of fresh food that they rely upon to feed those in need in Longmont. Their food distribution partners (Longmont Meals on Wheels, Village Place, Cinnamon Park, The Suites) are already servicing vulnerable and food insecure populations, and they ensure the food provided is delivered to those most in need.
Wellington Food Bank
The bulk of the food typically distributed comes at little or no cost from the Food Bank for Larimer County. In this crisis, they have accelerated their distribution (more than doubled) and have exhausted several of the "food drive" items allotted to them, making it necessary to purchases items, which will increase spending significantly. They need help keeping up with the demand... which is almost certainly going to continue to increase.
House of Neighborly Service
The need for emergency funding is due to the increase in food insecurity for individuals and households due to job loss, lack of necessities at the local grocery store, and at-risk individuals to reduce public exposure. In “normal times”, food baskets are available once a month to help bring stability to a household and allow their limited income to be used on other basics such as utilities, childcare, rent, etc.
Due to the COVID-10 Crisis, individuals and families are able to come for a food basket two times a month. Each basket is based on family size and contains up to 7 days of groceries, providing three meals a day. Food baskets are available for individuals and families experiencing homelessness as well.
Thompson School dist
Since March 23rd the school district has been providing grab and go meals with a drive through type set up at 5 sites in the district. Currently they only have access to 2 kitchens to prepare food. They pack it up and load it onto trucks to be distributed. The trucks are not refrigerated so they do not have a way to keep the food cold as the outside temperatures increase. They are doing their best to keep items cold and using shelf stable items as much as possible but also want to provide variety and wholesome nutrition. Additionally they are delivering to some homes in a few areas where people cannot get to distribution sites. Bus routes are also being considered to reach more families that may not have transportation to sites.
KidsPak/Loveland Rotary Club Foundation
KidsPak provides food bags for food insecure children through the school district. They are expanding the program due to COVID-19 to families and all others affected by COVID 19 and to provide more food bags due to the lack of access to food.
University of Northern Colorado Foundation
This funding will support the Bear Pantry at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), a collaborative initiative on the campus, that addresses the basic need of access to food. The Bear Pantry has served over 2000 unduplicated students in just a few years. Students can have 10 items per week. The pantry offers access to food, household essentials, and school supplies. At UNC, over one-third of students are considered low-income and 43% of students are first generation college students. UNC is home to 34% of students identifying in a minority population, and 23% of students identify as Latinx/Hispanic.
Weld Food Bank
Weld Food Bank has experienced a 53% increase in individuals and 63% increase in children served in the last month while donations from grocery stores have all but ceased. Requests for Kids Backpacks (packs of child-friendly, shelf-stable food) have increased to 2,500 per week - a 150% increase. They have had to increase staffing to safely deliver food to those who are homebound, serve clients directly at the Greeley location and increased warehouse help to distribute food across the 4,000+ square miles of Weld County. They have incurred over $45,000 in sanitation costs associated with food distribution (i.e. gloves, masks, sanitizer, etc). Because children can no longer congregate to receive Kids Cafe meals, they are purchasing a significant amount of "Grab & Go" meals. This funding would be used for the purchase of shelf-stable meals to ensure food safety in distribution as well as staffing costs incurred to deliver this food. By working with school districts across Weld County, Weld Food Bank can serve at least 2,500 children per week who rely on the Free & Reduced Lunch program - reaching those impacted the most in the community.
Food Bank for Larimer County
Fresh Food Share, the largest program, provides free groceries to those in need through a new drive-up service model, with deliveries for homebound seniors and modified options for people experiencing homelessness. This funding will help meet the increased needs of the 30,000 low-income individuals the pantries already serve each year, in addition to many new clients who are now facing economic hardship due to COVID-19. Last week, their pantries served an average of 510 households (1,251 unique individuals) per day.
Citipointe Northern Colorado Church
Citipointe Church Northern Colorado is a non-denominational church that serves the local community, with a mission to unmistakably influence people for good and for God. Betta Gumbo Cares, is the philanthropic arm of Betta Gumbo Restaurant in the heart of downtown Loveland, Colorado. Betta Gumbo is locally owned and operated as a small business and has recognized the ever-growing need to feed people in the local community. Betta Gumbo Cares mission is to impact a life one meal and one act of kindness at a time. Through this foundational partnership between Citipointe Church and Betta Gumbo Cares, the partnership will provide ready to eat meals, meal packages, and other personal items to support populations in need and affected by the pandemic, aseptically those who are unable to leave their home. With a brand-new state of the art industrial kitchen, a dedicated group of volunteers, access to community and funding; this partnership will provide access to ready-to-eat meals for those that need it most.
FoCo Cafe
During normal circumstances, a substantial portion of FoCo Cafe's operating budget comes from daily dining operations. Due to the COVID-19 oubtreak, they have had to temporarily close our dining room. Therefore, in order to support the most under-resourced members of our community, they need additional funding to procure food and to pay staff for their time spent preparing food. As they are typically a dine-in establishment, they may need to purchase additional resources to help facilitate meal deliveries, although they are working to acquire additional necessary equipment such as thermal bags from local entities such as Meals on Wheels in Loveland.
Prairie Family Center
Prairie Family Center has seen a rise in client need since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. PFC assists families and individuals that have been affected by the virus due to job loss with rent, utilities, food, and necessities. PFC will also provide proper PPE and salaries for employees in order to assist clients. The impact that this funding will create is phenomenal. It will help people when they need it most. The barriers that are foreseen are slight barriers that will be overcome by PFC staff. Some clients affected will require home deliveries during the quarantine. Staff, despite the obvious risk, will be wearing proper COVID-19 attire (masks and gloves) and will adhere to social distancing guidelines when delivering items to assist clients.
Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning
Ft Morgan is the most diverse city in Colorado, second only to Aurora. It is the home to 50-60 Somali families working in meat processing. They report fears of not having enough food with loss of employment, and will soon have the additional challenge of observing Ramadan which requires culturally appropriate foods. Spring Institute would allocate emergency funding to purchase food and partner with the community to provide and support delivery of food to Somali refugee and immigrant families living in Ft Morgan beginning the week before Ramadan.
Rural Communities Resource Center
RCR needs funding because the need for food has increased greatly. They are in a rural community where the rate of students on free & reduced lunch is over 60%. They estimate that if everyone who qualified applied and participated it would be closer to 70% or higher. There is 1 grocery store in Yuma and 1 in Akron, 30 miles apart. Prices have increased in the last 2 weeks and low income families have been hit very hard. Yuma has a high population of immigrants including many families who do not qualify for food stamps due to immigration status.
Mountain Backpack Program
The Mountain Backpack Program has gone from serving 175 families on a weekly basis to a demand for nearly double. The rising cost and limited availability of food is becoming more challenging by the day. They are spending approximately $10,000 every 3 weeks to keep up with the growing demand.
They have established drop off locations across three counties while students are not able to receive regular services through their school sites. Access is a significant issue, particularly for families in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties, where there are less formal resources and families are more isolated.
Smart Bellies
Before COVID-19 closed down schools, Smart Bellies was serving around 300 children per week in all six elementary schools in Summit County. Since the school closures, Smart Bellies has continued to provide weekend meals to the kids in the community. They have opened up services to all families with children in the school district and are currently serving around 450 children each week. They expect this number to continue to grow if the schools remain closed. they are partnered with the school district to give out bags every Friday at their seven pick up locations and are also offering a delivery service once a week to those families who are not leaving their homes or are unable to get to a pick up location.
Arc of the Central Mountains
The Arc of the Central Mountains has the ability to identify individuals and families who may have access and functional needs like; disabilities, remote residence, language, lack of transportation. We are collaborating with several agencies and organizations within their 4 counties to stay informed of where and how to access resources including food. The Arc of the Central Mountains is helping families navigate the available support systems to locate and procure food distributions in Lake, Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin Counties.
Friendly Harbor
Since mid-March, when the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to be understood and restrictions on activities were coming into place, two community groups, Hartsel Community Center and Hartsel Library Friends came together to provide food to our residents in need. Neither group typically operates as a food bank but the need was there and volunteers were eager to do what they could to help. To date, they have distributed 45 boxes of food, serving 96 Hartsel residents. The recipients are made up of single persons, families with children and several elderly couples. At first the two groups funded the food purchases with their own resources (along with some community food donations) but have nearly exhausted the funds available. The Hartsel Community Center, Hartsel Library Friends and the good folks in the Town of Hartsel are grateful for the funds advanced in this program.
Hartsel Food Bank
The funds will be used to maintain an adequate amount of inventory to serve those who come to the food bank and homebound. Currently, Hartsel Food Bank is dependent on donations by individuals or through their Church sponsor. They serve up to 65 families per week and are typically open on Sunday afternoon but serve during the week as emergencies arise.
Love INC of the Yampa Valley
Love INC is requesting this funding to allow them to purchase additional food supplies for three of their food assistance programs. They work in collaboration with Interfaith Food Bank and St. Michael's Community Kitchen to ensure that they are reaching under-served populations, especially those who are home-bound. They supply food to operate our two main food pantries in Moffat County, one in Craig and one in Dinosaur. The food pantry in Dinosaur is the only food pantry in that small community, which is located on the western edge of Moffat County, 90 miles from Craig. They also supply food to increase the small food supplies of another well-used food pantry housed at the Church of Destiny. Together these three sites serve 35-50 people per week.
Hanover Outreach Center Inc.
Being in a rural area, the school district elected to not prepare sack lunches, for the children, as other districts have. The free and reduced lunch program was utilized by 78% of the families in the community. As of now, they have 632 families, 3376 people, that have contacted them for food access. Volunteers are wanting to pack boxes for each family on a weekly basis for enough meals for the family for at least two meals a day. Our families have lost jobs and many have medical issues that prevent them from obtaining food. They support many elderly that are immune compromised and cannot get out. They also support many disabled veterans that are struggling to obtain food.
TESSA
TESSA knows this pandemic and the increased isolation from supports, work, friends, family and neighbors will put more stress on those they serve. They may be experiencing increased time with an abusive partner, uncertainty around response time to their needs, lost wages due to work closures, less access, both real and perceived, to support services and increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 in communal environments such as shelters. They anticipate seeing greater numbers of individuals needing all services including safe housing. They need to be mindful of keeping everyone safe and healthy, and have begun to house clients, both existing and new, in safe alternate locations to allow for safe social distancing. With an increase in locations housing individuals comes the need for increased food. Money received will be used to provide food to a minimum of 55 adults and children monthly.
Friendly Harbor
Nearly all of ~ 250 of Friendly Harbors members are low income. All have mental health and substance challenges. 17.2 % of Pueblo compared to 9.6% Colorado as a whole live in poverty. 20.7 % of Pueblo compared to 10.6 % of Colorado are disabled. They anticipate being able to deliver individuals or families a week supply of food each week.
Ithaka Land, Inc.
Because they believe that everyone deserves a home, Ithaka serves the most vulnerable in Colorado Springs with two transitional housing programs. Their residents are extremely low-income families and individuals, with an average Area Median Income (AMI) percent of 27% prior to significant loss of employment among our residents. Their program selection process prioritizes those with additional high barriers. With these funds, they will deliver necessary and culturally appropriate food to all of residents as needed during this challenging time. Specifically, they will concentrate efforts on those who are unable to receive public benefits, including stimulus checks.
Fostering Hope Foundation
Fostering Hope Foundations clients are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and the economic consequences of the outbreak. They serve former foster youth who have now lost their jobs and who have no safety net. Fostering Hope is often their only support. They also serve foster families who take in some of the most difficult, complex children in the system and who are home-bound during this crisis. This includes medically fragile foster children, large sibling groups, and youth with extreme trauma, some of whom are regressing as a result of the current situation. Most recently, as a result of the outbreak, they discovered many of our elderly volunteers are now home-bound and struggling to get food resources, and are working to support them as well. Fostering Hope is uniquely positioned to meet the food/nutritional needs of these vulnerable populations and to do so swiftly, flexibly and effectively. "We are so grateful for this support at such a critical time," said Director Brian Newsome. "It will mean that our foster families and youth who have aged out of the system will have one less worry during this stressful time."
Westside CARES
The first week of March, Westside CARES' Wednesday food pantry served fourteen families (29 individuals). The final week of March, they served 69 families and 219 people. Of those people, 33% were children, 11% were seniors, and 60% were accessing the pantry for the first time in 2020. These real-time statistics speak to a real and growing need for food on the west side of El Paso County.
Small Town Project/Rocky Ford
This funding will support the Rocky Ford Food Share Project in providing healthy food assistance to at-need families including the low-income, rural, immigrant/undocumented, senior/disabled, and quarantined/isolated people in and around Rocky Ford and Otero/Crowley Counties in Southeast Colorado. By working with local farmers and ranchers to get fresh food while boosting the local economy, and leveraging bulk food distributors we will be able to deliver food boxes to thousands of families in southeast Colorado.
Helping Hands of Harvest Food Bank
At this time, volunteers are personally boxing food and paper products for families who are in need. Normally the clients are allowed to shop in the Food Pantry and choose what they need, but during the crisis, they box everything and personally take it out to them in their vehicles. Many items are in short supply, so this funding would help purchase items such as: meat, paper products, canned foods, dairy items, etc.
Las Animas Helping Hands
Las Animas Helping Hands is experiencing an increased need for food from their pantry. They served 466 in March and have spent $1,062.66 at our local grocery store for two distributions this past week. There are people coming to the food pantry who have never come before.
Las Animas School District RE-1
Las Animas School District has a 78% free and reduced lunch program. When the COVID-19 crisis hit and these students lost access to the only nutritional meals and snacks they have on a traditional school day they knew that many would go hungry and have stepped up to meet the need.
Somebody Cares Project
Las Animas county has very few resources to support our community at any time. Since this crisis the need has been greater. They can do few fundraisers now and have to buy food in bulk to serve the many request they get daily. They have gone from 2-3 food box's and 25 plus food bags a week to the same amount daily just in Trinidad area. They have resorted to setting up locations in different areas and communities for easy access to the food bags. Their mini Food Bank is a large garage until they can get a building to work out of.
Manna - The Durango Soup Kitchen
Additional funding is needed to purchase food, to-go containers and pay staff to continue our services and keep up with the increased demand for those experiencing food insecurity. Manna has experienced a dramatic increase in meals served from normally 100-150 meals a day to 250-450 meals per day. Manna continues to serve meals seven days a week, distributing sack lunches and hot to-go meals every day from 9 am -11 am at the back entrance of our Soup Kitchen in a grab and go style. Anyone in need is welcomed to come and pick up meals for themselves, their families, neighbors and/or other community members. They are not limiting the number of meals that an individual can take at this time.
Dove Creek Care and Share Food Pantry, Inc.
The Dove Creek communities are sparsely populated with approximately 2,000 residents spread across 1,000 square miles. Sheltering in place has the most at-risk residents at home and unable to easily travel to replenish fresh food without concern for health, especially since travel is over 30 minutes each way for a fully featured grocer. Due to COVID-19, they have seen crisis numbers increasing 15% since late March. They are expecting more need as the days continue. They are delivering food to all who need it across our frontier area, but could use help in being sure they can meet all of the demand.
CASA of the Seventh Judicial District
Prior to COVID19, CASA7JD was providing food, either through an entire meal, or snacks 5 days a week at either the Youth Access Center or 1st Place on 2nd Street, Supportive Housing for young adults 18-24 years of age who were in the foster care system. Healthy snacks had been previously donated through the local food bank. That resource is no longer able to provide these snacks. The pot luck dinners were provided by volunteers. With Social Distancing, the group meals are no longer able to be prepared or served. Currently, 20 lunchboxes are prepared by a local restaurant to feed the 1st Place tenants for 4 meals/week. Plan is to expand to enough food for 7 days for 24 youth; and have food sources available for another 30 youth/young adults. Videos are being prepared on how to prepare Crock Pot meals with items that can still be found on the grocery shelves ie beans. The videos will be shared on social media with the young people.
Food System|Food Equity Coalition
The onset of COVID-19 is creating a major challenge to the rural mountain community with the loss of jobs and limited access to food. Archuleta County food pantries have provided food support to a steadily growing number of individuals and families for nearly 30 years. Today, the pantries find their funds depleted to purchase food to meet the needs of their existing clients and those presenting with emergent food needs. With the pandemic, close to 275 individuals/families are being served per week. Previously, the six food pantries were serving about half of this number at an estimated cost of $7,650/month. This amount has more than doubled ($16,000/month) making it cost prohibitive with potential impact on service. Additional funding is needed for the pantries to continue to feed their affected community members during this unprecedented time.
Norwood Food Bank
The work of Norwood Food Bank is already up, running and established in the community where they have served the identified populations for the past ten years, and have continually increased the quantity of services over the past six years. They requesting additional funding to address the recent and dramatic increase in demand for food insecurity services. The funds will provide additional staffing and food purchases.
Mountain Valley School
Mountain Valley School district serves low-income families. They serve ages 0-18 years of age. This funding will help to provide needed resources to provide nutritious meals that meet the USDA guidelines, and will continue to allow them to purchase the needed supplies to safely distribute these meals to the families requesting home delivery, and also to all others that pick up their meals at two grab and go sites. At this time all meals are prepared at Mountain Valley School, and they distribute them from their school to more rural areas through two bus routes of home delivery, and a rural pick-up site at the KV Clubhouse in Moffat, and also at grab and go pick-up site at Mountain Valley School, in Saguache.
Alamosa School District
Alamosa School District has a high free and reduced lunch rate and is a rural are where there are not a lot of jobs where families can continue to work. This is a huge burden on families. They need to continue to help feed our kids so they don't go hungry because that is what is real in our county! They are serving 1400 meals a day 7 days a week. This funding will help continue to provide meals and to expand more sites. The important thing is to keep some normal with the kiddos by providing school meals during this crazy scary time.
The Salvation Army
Food Bank Network of St. Vrain Valley partners with Care & Share Food Bank and local farmers and food drives are helping, but they stil need to make additional food purchases to meet increased demand.
Twin Parishes Food Bank
Twin Parishes Food Bank has witnessed a 35-50% increase in clients (possibly higher) since COVID-19 restrictions began as they are one of the Food Bank of the Rockies Emergency sites that will remain open throughout the crisis. They want to be able to serve as many people as possible and have needed to purchase technology, additional food, and we have had to increase time of personnel in order to shift operations to a method that can serve the maximum amount of people efficiently and safely as well as coordinate with other food banks and agency case workers as they provide more food for case workers bringing it to their home bound clients through MHCD, Benefits in Action, St. Francis center, and others. They are currently providing food distributions for up to 100 client families each day they are open, serving over 600 families in March and those numbers are rising.
North Conejos School District
Conejos County is one of the poorest county's in the state, this added money will help stretch the school budget. The food budget has taken a hit due to the fact that the school is no longer on their original cycle menu, making a new cycle menu, having to pay over time for staff to stay and prep food, making sure all food safety guidelines were followed by buying coolers, ice, gas for the vehicles, personal protective gear for all staff, and necessary equipment to make delivering food possible.
Costilla County Public Health
Currently food distribution is staffed by two part-time individuals. The Commodity Office is open on the first 3 Tuesdays of every month. 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. in San Luis. Our food distribution services spread out as far as 130 miles one way. Food distribution to outlying communities is currently offered one time a month. They are currently receiving calls from high risk elderly that do not have family or friends that can assist them with getting food. With the extra funding they could have a staff member pack food boxes and deliver to these community members that are in need within a more timely manner.
Reaching Out to Community and Kids
ROCK is hopeful to provide 10 drive-through distributions total, with additional support as needed. The components of each of the distributions will include, $5,000 towards food expenses, $1,000 towards basic necessity expenses, and $1,000 towards hands-on mental health activities. The total cost per distribution will be $7,000. ROCK’s total project budget for emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic is $70,000. However, the numbers previously stated are contingent upon securing funding and will ultimately determine the depth and frequency of our services. In addition, services may change based on the communities constant and changing needs.
The Shepherd’s Hand, Inc.
To address the additional community needs due to COVID-19, food will be given out thru 18 different local organizations that can assist in getting the food to those who need it, plus a food bank when anyone needing food can pick up a box for 3 meals for 3 days whenever they need it. Shepherd's Hand food bank is open 3 days per week at this time, with the option of opening more days as the need arises. Local needs for the homeless and low income has tripled in the last two weeks and will continue to increase as people run out of paychecks and money in this community.
Advocates for Victims of Assault, Inc.
Advocates for Victims Assault needs this funding to provide food to clients, many of whom were already struggling financially prior to COVID-19. Because many recently left an abuser, they do not have savings, and most have lost their jobs. They are trying to feed and shelter their families, and AVA wants to provide as much assistance as possible to ensure they do not return to their abuser out of financial desperation. They currently provide three meals per day to our shelter residents, and they have 11 individuals in shelter. They are also providing meals twice per week to non-residential clients. Last week, they provided meals to over 40 families. They have been providing a combination of grocery items and prepared meals and are utilizing both grant funds and a food coalition to source food to make funds stretch as long as possible and feed the maximum number of families possible. They are offering both pickup and delivery options for our clients, as many have transportation issues, particularly now that free public transportation has been suspended. Many clients rely solely on us because for safety reasons, they cannot go to other donation sites or have other organizations come to their residences.
Project Hope of Gunnison Valley
Most of Project Hope's clients are low-income and often struggle to make ends meet, even when not experiencing the unprecedented financial strain caused by COVID-19. Several of their clients are immigrants and/or do not speak English as their first language, creating additional barriers to accessing other food assistance programs. Living in such a rural and isolated part of the state also limits resources available to clients. To help with this, Project Hope is offering assistance with emergency food supplies. They always offer this type of financial assistance for our clients in need, but have seen and expect to continue to see an increase in need for this as they weather this storm.
Clifton Christian Church Food and Clothing
With the new and uncharted COVID-19 Pandemic they find themselves in need of funding immediately. Clifton Christian Church Food and Clothing is proud and honored to be an EMERENCY RELIEF AGENCY for Mesa County and surrounding counties. They are a church food bank that does not have any paid staff and operates fully on volunteer staff, donations, and much grace from the community. Here is a look into program increases due to COVID-19. March 2019, they provided nutritious food to 1,124 individuals, 485 households and 92 new households. March 2020 COVID-19 1,741 individuals,685 households, and 207 new households that have never received services from CCC Food and Clothing. With this comes a huge task of providing well balanced nutritious food for so many more than they budgeted for.
Child and Migrant Services, Inc.
Migrant and settled farm workers and their families are greatly impacted by current circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of them facing significant loss of income for an indefinite period as well as other challenges presented by limited opportunity to obtain food and supplies. CMS will provide food boxes with staple foods, produce and basic supplies for curbside pick up at their facility in Palisade as well as for delivery to people who have very limited or no transportation. They anticipate providing food to 80-100 people per week (adults and children).
Surface Creek Community Services, Inc.
Surface Creek Community Services will use these funds to immediately address the need of feeding those in our rural community. Every week they are getting record numbers of new clients, almost all have been laid off due to the Covid-19 restrictions. They will use the funding to buy food and household supplies (i.e., toilet paper) for those in need. The impact of this grant will give the community much needed food for those who are suffering. It will also help with giving people a sense of security during this crisis. They are working with other organization and volunteers to let the community know that we are open and are also using social media to inform people. They are allowing others to pick up food for clients that are at high risk.
Grand Valley Catholic Outreach (3H, 2M)
We Grand Valley Catholic Outreach has the only county soup kitchen where we serve between 250 and 300 people each day and supplies for the daily meals are lower than usual because food drives are suspended. They prepare a complete noonday meal and are lacking meat for the meals.
San Miguel County WIC Farmer’s Market Program (3H, 2M)
The WIC Programs in Ouray & San Miguel counties have a grant funded Farmer's Market program (14 years) that provides locally grown fruits and vegetables to all participants in the 2 county region between May-October. Typically, families redeem special vouchers at any of 4 locations, but they have secured food resources through numerous local farms to support this request. This program is designed to increase fruit and vegetable intake in our nutritionally at-risk population. Low income families often choose higher calorie, lower nutrient dense foods, at the expense of essential micro-nutrients during the critical times of pregnancy, breastfeeding, infancy and childhood. This program directly supports local growers with every dollar spent.
Valley Settlement
Over the past ten years, Valley Settlement has built strong trust with newly immigrated Latinx families in the Roaring Fork Valley. Funding will be used to provide food assistance to 200 hungry, under resourced Latinx immigrant families during a one-month period (880 persons).
Community Food Bank
Since March 16th when Community Food Bank started their COIVD19 emergency response plan they have served a total of 1,535 individuals from 584 households. Their totals for March 2020 was 764 households, or 2,423 individuals. This is over double the normal average daily volume of around 59 individuals per client service period, to 159 per service period.
The Salvation Army Grand Junction
The caseload for emergency food has doubled in the past three weeks and they have added food distribution in remote communities. They have lifted monthly limits on emergency food distribution and will use funding to purchase more food, specifically meat/protein. The meat supply from Food Bank of the Rockies is limited due to their lack of donations. They expect those affected by covid-19 will need to receive food twice a month and at times weekly. They will continue advertise services on social media and reach out to local and remote government entities to coordinate food distribution services. They are currently offering home delivered food boxes for those who need it in Mesa, Delta and Montrose Counties.
Karis, Inc.
Karis, Inc. provides housing and research-based services to 250 homeless, unaccompanied youth ages 13-24 in Mesa County, Colorado each year. Of these youth, 20-25% identify as LGBTQ, a population that experiences higher levels of adversity and an early death rate twice as high as their non-LGBTQ homeless peers (voicesofyouthcount.org). Homeless youth are disproportionately affected by hunger and food insecurity; in one study, a third of homeless adolescents had experienced food insecurity during a 30-day period (Whitbeck, et. al., 2006). Karis will address these barriers by shopping for groceries, both at local grocery stores and food banks, and delivering food to homeless youth, as well as providing food at their centrally located drop-in center. This temporary solution will help sustain homeless youth through the crisis until food and transportation resources become more accessible.
HomewardBound of the Grand Valley, Inc
The pandemic has brought an immediate increase in demand for meals, more than doubling from an average 131 to 280 meals per night. At the same time given CDC and Mesa County Public Health recommendations, and Colorado’s stay-at-home order, volunteer assistance (typically providing the equivalent work of four full-time staff) has currently ceased, while 40% of kitchen staff are age 60+ with at-risk health and currently unable to be onsite.
The Salvation Army, a California Corporation, Vail Service Extension (4H, 1M)
During this Covid 19 crisis their food pantry has distributed more than triple the average amount of food boxes. This community is a Covid hotspot and thousands of people have been laid off from work. They anticipate these numbers will increase even more as this continues. Additionally, they are providing food to be delivered to households in quarantine and are also feeding first responders.
Kids Aid
This funding will cover the costs of feeding food-insecure kids on the weekends. Their Backpack Program went from serving roughly 1,800 kids/wk to 2,300 kids/wk (and growing) during the closures. Thanks to La Milpa Tortilla Factory, they've also added Colorado Proud, fresh tortillas to our food bags. The cost of a food bag is around $5. Before the pandemic, 51% of Mesa County's students qualified for free and reduced lunches. With recent layoffs, they've seen a considerable increase. The program has completely readjusted its operations and reached out to the community to find as many kids as possible, so they do not go hungry over the weekends.
Gilpin County Food Pantry (3M/2H)
Gilpin County food pantry has more than tripled how many food boxes they are giving out each month and do not see this changing until the Casinos and other businesses re-open in Gilpin County. They are one of the hardest hit economies not just in the state but the country. Requests for Emergency Monetary Assistance have also more than doubled and they are trying to help as many of our residents with rent, utilities and other necessities but have limited funding. They are ordering from Food Bank of the Rockies and going to the grocery stores to buy necessary items for families to they have access to food and other necessities but having a hard time meeting the demand.
5 Loaves Pantry
This grant will help fund food items for the "Kid's Bags" typically provided during school breaks. Currently, they are offering this additional food to families with kids at home during the COVID-19 stay at home order at each distribution. Extra food is necessary due to the increasing numbers of Senior Citizens by12% from February to March. They expect these numbers to continue to climb until jobs are restored and finances improve. They order the bulk of our food items from Care and Share. To provide enough canned vegetables and fruit, they are purchasing in bulk from the local grocery stores as well. They continue to deliver 1 gal. of milk, 1 doz. Eggs and frozen meat to each household. They are also going to provide personal care items at each distribution as long as funding is available. They strive to offer the same or more food items to a growing number of clients in our local communities.