Hi friends of Care and Share!
Yesterday was our annual Hunger’s Hope Awards, where we recognize super-hero-like members of our community for their outstanding commitment to helping us provide vital nutrition for our Southern Colorado neighbors at risk of hunger. This year, we honored the following awesome Hunger’s Hope heroes.
Ent Credit Union is community-minded. Their employees regularly support local non-profits financially, as well as with their talents and time. Ent will make contributions and sponsor activities that benefit the community and reflect the varied interests of credit union members in the following categories: education, health, and human services.
For more than 20 years, Ent has been our friend. In our approach to feeding our neighbors in Southern Colorado: Ent grants funding towards our Children’s Nutrition Initiative programs, sponsoring Recipe for Hope, hosting an annual CARE Drive – putting every can collected and dollar raised to the best possible use, and annually supporting Take a Turkey to Work Day – helping us to provide a Thanksgiving to our neighbors in need.
Donating is something that Audrey and Randy plan for each month. Understanding the purchasing power of a dollar, they budget/plan out exactly what they can do and then go shopping! They say if you do it just once, you’re hooked. We asked them how they felt the very first time they came to our warehouse and donated…jokingly, both responded that they were glad they found us.
Audrey and Randy are brilliant, a fun and generous couple who’ve been our friends for eight years. In 2015, they donated 1,580 pounds of food, the equivalent to 1,317 meals.
The Patty Jewett Neighborhood Food Project was created from listening to a podcast of a similar food project started in Ashland, Oregon.
There was a realization that many of their neighbors wanted to help fight hunger in their community, but for one reason or another their neighbors just didn’t know how to go about it. So, they created a simple, door-to-door food collection system that’s easy for everyone to participate. In 2015, the Patty Jewett Neighborhood Food Project collected more than 1,700 pounds of food the equivalent of nearly 1,500 meals.
Walmart has been faithfully supporting the work of Care and Share for more than 16 years. Walmart has provided grants for food and food program implementation throughout our 31 county service area. These gifts, ranging from $100 to $100,000 have made nearly 2 million meals possible for food insecure people in Southern Colorado. Additionally, the Walmart stores donate tens of thousands of pounds of wonderful food to us every year, ensuring that food will enrich people’s lives.
Through partnership with Feeding America, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation has provided vital funding towards a truck for our Pueblo facility, supported our participation in the Retail Store Donation Performance Pilot grant program, and have invested in our work through the Walmart State Giving Program – focused giving towards hunger relief and healthy eating habits – of food pantries, backpack programs, nutrition education programming, cooking and food skills training and SNAP outreach.
An idea was sparked many years ago after hearing a public service announcement about the need for food items during the holiday season. That idea became the reality to host a holiday party. The very first year, guests arrived with food items cleared out of their pantry, such as little tins of clams and artichoke hearts. Care and Share was happy to get it. But the Haug’s desire was to have certain amounts of food. A needed food list was presented and inspiration came – the first themed holiday party in November 2006 was powdered milk.
The theme for 2015 was Hunger Bites. Guests provided 516 pounds of food and raised $725, the equivalent to 6,230 meals.
Kaiser Permanente -Bottom Right
Kaiser Permanente is Colorado’s largest nonprofit health care provider, proudly working to improve the lives and health of Colorado residents for more than 45 years. Their vision is to be trusted partners in total health, collaborating with people to help them thrive and creating communities that are among the healthiest in the nation.
Through a wide range of support of Share Our Strength Cooking Matters nutrition education classes, sponsoring Recipe for Hope and Drive Out Hunger, collecting food during CARE Drive, volunteering for MLK Jr. Day of Service, and standing with us in our Within Reach plan – we are grateful for Kaiser Permanente’s sharing in our one belief: no one should go hungry.
Brenda Gilliam -not featured
Brenda has been our friend since 2010. Collecting and donating food of more than 2,100 pounds – the equivalent of 1,800 meals.
Please watch this video to learn more about our honorees.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
