When Kate arrives at a Food Bank of the Rockies’ mobile pantry distribution, she is already thinking about what the food can become. An eggplant might become lasagna or eggplant parmesan. Carrots could go into soup or salad. If she cannot use something right away, she might freeze-dry it for later. And if her family does not need an item, she makes sure it reaches someone who does.
That extra food matters to Kate’s family. Her daughter is preparing for nursing school while her son works at a wool mill and attends trade school. With groceries, housing, transportation, and education expenses competing for the family budget, the Mobile Pantry Program provides some welcome relief.
For Tom, who is 75, getting to the pantry requires a drive from Unaweep Canyon, where he lives with his brother, to Orchard Mesa Mobile Pantry. A cancer survivor who spent much of his career working on automobiles, Tom comes each month for the fresh produce and baked goods that help stretch his budget. “Fresh fruit is unaffordable,” he says.
For both Kate and Tom, the pantry offers more than groceries. Kate, especially, is struck by the sense of community she finds there.
“I love seeing the kids out there volunteering,” she says. “I think that’s really important.” She also points to longtime volunteer Ronda Jones as one of the people who helps make the distribution a place where neighbors feel cared for and welcomed.
Jones first learned about the distribution while helping her daughter get food assistance. She has been volunteering ever since. “Most of the people in this community are friends of mine. I know everyone,” Jones says.
“It’s the caring and sharing,” Kate says. “What I can’t use, I’ll share with somebody else.”
That generosity keeps moving outward like a ripple — from Food Bank of the Rockies, to volunteers, to neighbors like Kate and Tom, and from one neighbor to another.
