We are excited to introduce Sarah Nolen, one of our newest employees (she started in August of this year). Please enjoy learning more about her!

Q: What do you do here?

I have been given the amazing honor of becoming the new Children’s Program Coordinator for Care and Share. This means that I get the pleasure of working with various schools and fantastic child advocates throughout Colorado, and we share the united belief that no one should go hungry. During the school year, I work specifically with a few remarkable programs that I am very honored and proud to be a part of, and each one essentially provides food to hungry children and their families.

One is our Send Hunger Packing Program, which is a program that provides backpacks or bags of non-perishable and easily consumable food to hungry children and their families to enjoy over the weekend when school food is not available.

Another program I work with is our School Pantry Program, which has the overall mission of providing a more readily accessible source of food to low-income students and families. The School Pantries have set distribution hours, and they offer our clients the chance to go to the pantry sites and choose the foods they’d like to bring home to their families. We supply the pantries with nutritious food options, including fresh produce if storage is available. I also work with Mobile Food Pantries, which offer families the chance to pick up healthy and nutritious foods, such as fresh produce.

During the summer, my work will help ensure that children and families get the healthy food they need while school is out and meals are scarce for many.

Q: What did you do before Care and Share?

I spent more than 10 years of my life volunteering, mentoring, teaching and working with children and communities throughout the city of San Antonio, while finishing my degree in Education and raising my two daughters. Upon graduating, I got involved with a great company named Continental Properties, and spent a few years working in apartment communities where I was able to help families find homes. Although the work was fun and it did help people, I greatly missed working in the more humanitarian roles I was born to be a part of.

When my family and I moved to Colorado a few months ago, I promised myself that I would find a way to make my work more beautiful and meaningful, and something that would help children and families…and then I found Care and Share!!!

Q: What do you like best about your job here?

My programs help feed hungry children and their families! The work is so incredibly important and the impact our programs have with children and families is absolutely inspiring and profound. I cannot adequately express the joy and pride I have working for Care and Share, and I’m just thrilled to pieces to be the new Children’s Program Coordinator!

Q: Any fun tidbit about yourself that you would like to share? 

Aside from being a humanitarian, I also love to travel. My husband and I used to travel a lot together before we had our two daughters, and that’s actually what brought us to Colorado. We missed traveling so much and we wanted to show our daughters more of the world. All they had known was Texas, and we wanted to change that. So we literally sat down together and decided that this summer was a great time to make a family move. We chose Colorado for its beautiful mountains and forests, and for the wonderful seasons and active lifestyles families enjoy here. We spent the entire summer hiking. Since our kids have never seen snow, we can’t wait for their first winter here!

Q: And just for fun: Since pumpkin spice season is upon us, what is your favorite pumpkin spice product?

I’m a huge lover of pumpkin spiced candles every Fall, and I thoroughly enjoy pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks every season as well.