In the blink of an eye, Anna Scardina’s title at Benefits in Action went from SNAP enrollment specialist to food delivery and resource coordinator. And in that same eye blink, her organization – traditionally a service connector — became a direct service provider.
Lyndsey Williams is no stranger to challenge. As the Food Bank Network Director for La Puente’s Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley, she oversees 15 pantries that serve more than 10,000 people spread out over six counties on a landmass roughly the size of Massachusetts.
If you are looking for CommunityWorks in Aurora or Colorado Springs, you should first look for a barbershop.
The non-profit found early on that the men and women who use their help to learn new work skills and receive certifications that could help them find steady employment weren’t interested in going to places that looked like workforce centers. They were looking for normalcy.
For Brenda Kaiser, it all comes down to relationships. Kaiser is a community outreach coordinator for the Safe and Abundant Nutrition Alliance, a collection of groups working to build a new regional food system in Western Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties. Since February, Kaiser and two other community outreach coordinators have been hard at work collecting the stories of more than 200 individuals and families…
Morgan County Colorado is, quite simply, giving every urban area in Colorado a run for its money when it comes to racial and ethnic diversity. That’s not a statement everyone would expect when the term rural is also used to describe this county that sits in the state’s northeastern corner. Yet, over the last two decades, the county has become a magnet for many who have immigrated for work or family as well as those who are seeking a more rural, farming-based lifestyle.
At Boulder Food Rescue, they take the dynamics of power and access seriously. In fact, they spend considerable time every day trying hard to stand the traditional charity model on its head. It is true that the underpinning of the food rescue is an attempt to fill gaps left by traditional food access agencies and minimize the food waste, particularly with fresh fruits and vegetables, in the overarching food system.
When Ricardo Rocha tells you Bondadosa is a people first organization, believe him. There is literally no way Denver metro based Bondadosa could do what it has without that foundational belief. For frame of reference, in 2018, the organization’s first year, they delivered 380 orders for food from families who needed them.
