Disaster Relief Plan
What We Provide During An Emergency
Care and Share serves as Southern Colorado’s primary emergency food distribution partner during disasters. We provide warehousing, logistics, volunteer coordination, and mass food distribution support in coordination with the County Office of Emergency Management (OEM), Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) partners, the American Red Cross, and Feeding America. We operate as part of the local emergency response system and coordinate closely with county emergency management, municipal leadership, Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), and the national Feeding America network. Care and Share’s role is to guarantee continuity of food supply and equitable access to food when disasters disrupt normal community systems.
Our Commitment
Disasters disrupt infrastructure, stability, dignity, and access to basic needs. Care and Share is committed to ensuring that food remains accessible, coordinated, and equitably distributed throughout Southern Colorado during times of crisis.
How to Activate Care and Share
Step 1: Contact Care and Share’s Incident Commander
• 24/7 emergency number: 719-434-5721
•Email: disasterrelief@careandshare.org
Step 2: Provide situation summary
•Incident location
•Estimated impacted population
•Timeline and current response structure
•Point of contact within emergency management
Step 3: Confirm coordination with local emergency operations
When to Contact Care and Share
Care and Share should be contacted when:
- A disaster impacts food access for a community or region
- Emergency shelters or distribution sites require food supply
- Local resources are insufficient to meet food demand
- A county or municipality activates emergency operations
- A feeding gap has been identified during response efforts.
We do not self-deploy. All disaster response efforts are coordinated through local emergency management or recognized response partners.
What Care and Share Does Not Do
For clarity and alignment within the emergency response system, Care and Share does not:
- Provide direct financial assistance unless directed by an outside funder
- Operate as a first responder (law enforcement, fire, EMS)
- Independently manage emergency shelters (unless formally coordinated)
- Deploy outside our service area without formal coordination
- Activate disaster operations without alignment with emergency management
Our focus is food logistics, warehousing, distribution, and volunteer coordination in support of the broader response structure.
How We Coordinate
Care and Share operates within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) framework and aligns with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS).
We integrate into local Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) and coordinate directly with:
- County and municipal emergency management offices
- VOAD partners
- State agencies
- The national Feeding America Disaster Response Network
This ensures that food distribution efforts are coordinated, efficient, and aligned with broader emergency response efforts.
