The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
More funding needed to continue
By Kendra Walker
The Mountain Roots Food Project continues to bring meals to families in need during the pandemic with a new family supper program, and is looking for more funding in order to maintain and serve the community’s needs.
Partnering with local restaurants to prepare healthy meals, the Mountain Roots team is delivering ready-made, healthy meals to families in need, and served 200 meals during the program’s first week of April 12. Families can sign up for a meal, which serves four people, and pay on a sliding scale ranging from $0 to $20 based on what they are able to pay. Partnering restaurants in the first week included The Divvy, Garlic Mike’s Mario’s, Mountain Oven Bakery and Mountain Roots Kitchen. This week’s participating restaurants are The Divvy and High Alpine Brewing Company.
The family supper program was made possible by grant funding from the Community Foundation of Gunnison Valley, and donations to Mountain Roots. “We’ve had an overwhelming amount of community support,” said Mountain Roots’ Farm to School Education program director Sasha Legere. “Something that has really made the program be able to continue after we received the initial Community Foundation grant is the astounding support we received through donations. We’ve had a lot of community members donating, as well as second homeowners calling in with donations.”
Legere says that the partnering restaurants have been extremely generous with their support as well. “What’s awesome is the restaurants aren’t trying to save money or donate cheaper menu options. They’re still making very delicious, healthy meals,” she said. In order to offer his supper program meals to families for free, David Wilkins of The Divvy is selling chicken dinner specials to the public where each meal purchased gives a free meal to someone in need through the program.
Mountain Roots has received more than 360 requests for meals each week and hopes to meet this community need through additional funding from other grants or donations. According to executive director Holly Conn, it takes about $6,000 to run one week of the program. “This next week is fully funded on community members,” said Legere. “If we get more funding, that will allow us for greater capacity to accept participants for the program.” This week’s Gunnison deliveries filled to capacity and Mountain Roots has started a waitlist, she noted. Legere also expects the need for meals, especially free meals, will continue to grow and stresses how important donations will be to keep the program moving forward.
But so far the recipient feedback has been reassuring, said Legere. “It’s quite overwhelming how many people were so grateful and thankful,” she said, noting that many families being served may be experiencing food insecurity for the first time due to the pandemic. “I think it’s helping people feel like they have a little bit of control, like it doesn’t seem as crazy. It keeps things stable and helps people feel that not all hope is lost.
“So many families are struggling right now,” said Conn. “They’re out of work, they’re homeschooling and many have also been sick. Just getting to the store and shopping for food is a challenge. Delivering meals takes some of the pressure off, and it helps to make ends meet. And the fact that they are healthy and delicious helps preserve a sense of normality during this not-so-normal time. Families can still come together and enjoy a meal. But the longer this [the stay at home orders and business closures] continues, the more people will be stretching their budgets. We want to meet the need as much as we can for as long as the need persists.”
If you are a family in need of a meal, visit mountainrootsfoodproject.org to sign up. If you are interested in donating to the family supper program, email sasha@moutainrootsfoodproject.org.
