No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.
—Althea Gibson
As we come to the end the first year of our Within Reach plan, we have a great deal for which we are thankful. Providing access to food for more than 170,000 people in need throughout Southern Colorado is challenging to say the least. But doing so is right. We approached an audacious goal with big plans, enthusiasm, a little fear, and a great deal of hope.
We accomplished many things, all of it made possible because of the hard work, generosity, and commitment of our many supporters. Here are just a few examples:
- Because of support from Kaiser Permanente Colorado and Lyda Hill we increased our capacity and will be identifying 19 new places for people to access food.
- We partnered with school districts in Pueblo and Colorado Springs to provide food to children and families when school lunch and breakfast are not available.
- Feeding America and the Walmart Foundation provided an additional truck for our Pueblo facility, expanding our ability to gather and distribute more food
- We asked our partner agencies, if given more food, could they reach more people? Early estimates show that these hardworking partners have accomplished just that, reaching more than 120,000 people (up from 108,000) in need this past fiscal year.
- Volunteers have always been the lifeblood of Care and Share, but this year they stepped up in ways we never could have imagined. They took ownership of outreach, contributed to efficiency gains, and served as ambassadors in our community in the fight against hunger.
- We’ve grown our relationships with farmers and food donors, ensuring the availability of much more food, especially produce.
This is a very small list of all that has taken place this year as we work to achieve Within Reach. We recently convened our team to evaluate how things are moving forward and what needs to happen in the year ahead. You can learn more about the work we’ve done together and our plans for the future. Join us on July 21st at 11:00am, at the Care and Share warehouse, when our President and CEO Lynne Telford will provide an update and information for the future. RSVP to Sheila@careandshare.org no later than July 17th.
We can’t do our work alone. Thank you for the help you’ve given.
