Great New Ideas That Work: Helping the Hungry & Homeless

Greetings SW & River!

Thanks for the comments and sorry it's taken a while to respond. (I've assembled a team of 5 under/unemployed people and we're building a photo/essay/video contest website re: 'Great Ideas That Work', that will result in winning entries being published in a coffee table-style book and a documentary film. We want our communities to start seeing/implementing the innovative solutions popping up in other communities across the U.S. that address 12 major issues i.e. hunger, homelessness, poverty, foreclosures, education, environment, jobs/unemployment, rights, health & wellness, science & technology, etc.)

I'm trying to interpret your comments. This video does not appear in the dicp.org website yet but will soon. I'm sorry for the trouble you are having in viewing it. We obviously need to work on infrastructure/broadband in America!

To recap the video;
DICP has a program called FERN, Food Exchange and Resource Network, which is a collaboration of several food banks. Together they've rented a 13,000 sq. ft. warehouse with 400 cubic feet of cooler space and 200 sq. ft. of freezer space. This allows the food pantries to offer a "client choice" model, (similar to shopping in a store where one chooses what they want rather than receiving the traditional box of food, which may but most likely not, see all items used), because space is freed up because of the availability of off-site storage. Through the collaboration and staggering their schedules, they've made sure that at least 2 pantries are open 7 days a week.

They are also building a "clearing house" website/state-wide database where users will enter a user name and password. Resources i.e. grocery stores, farmers markets and other food sources will be able to log in say, 2 pallets of lettuce or whatever. Registered food pantries/orgs will be able to figure out what they need, and how to get it transported through the database of truckers doing back-loads, other orgs transporting, etc. This is a HUGE idea for states across the U.S. and would cut transport costs assessed by Feeding America for the goods traditionally resourced through them, that could be put towards the purchase of much needed food items. This would also enable much smaller, rural food banks/pantries, to piggy-back on shipments, etc. and give them healthier, more accessible food.
As I mentioned in my original post, I saw at least 11 great ideas so some of them may get mixed into this recap! DICP has seen a big change in the faces of hunger; they now serve the working poor, or apx. 125 families a day and have seen a 40% increase in need from 2010-2011 and said they, "don't see it getting better any time in the foreseeable future". (They go through three tons of food per week and are falling far short!)

They operate a rec center which is offered free of charge, so that their food pantry and homeless/soup kitchen clients can lead as healthy a life style as possible and also have access to showers, bathrooms, etc. For the homeless, they offer toiletries packs, basics, clothing, tarps, etc. and on Thursday nights operate a soup kitchen that is, "a community event". The chief of emergency room surgery at Denver Health Medical formed a partnership with DICP wherein two interns provide their services, unobtrusively, during the weekly dinner. This allows them to treat wounds, check conditions, medications, etc., creating an air of compassion, while providing much needed services that are costing the county millions of dollars less in emergency room visits, with pre-emptive care.

DICP also offers nutritional and cooking classes for their food pantry clients, as they've learned many don't know how to cook healthy foods. They've also partnered with Denver Urban Gardens where their clients grow their own food in community gardens and/or share it with fellow clients. There are so many other programs they offer but those will have to be covered under a separate blog.

A couple of things I've started and/or am working on currently, (locally);
Plant a Row to End Hunger, where gardeners plant a row that they donate to their local food pantry. Here is the video, although I know you SW, and others on dial-up will have difficulty viewing it; https://bitly.com/ezU3ia. If you have a local pantry and know area gardeners, they can easily connect and/or register pantry/gardeners at http://AmpleHarvest.org.

We are currently working on grants to fund a non-profit and buy a lunch/catering truck with heated/cooled compartments, to pick up food at restaurants around the valley, that will then be distributed to the homeless in the different areas they frequent. (We only have 1 soup kitchen in a 45-mile-long valley and LOTS of great restaurants that throw away food nightly in the Aspen area.) Many of the homeless are people who once frequented those establishments and/or owned their own! We're taking a page out of DICP's book though, and staffing the truck with both someone familiar with customer service and social/human services in our valley AND a trained medic to assess our clientele for medical implications. Since the trucks are built with many compartments, we'll outfit our truck with an advanced EMT/medic bag, extra gloves, hats, jackets, tarps, clothing, toiletries, etc. During the summer months when the weather is not such an issue but the lack of school lunches to feed our hungry children is the issue, we'll frequent parks, etc. on an established schedule, to make sure they get that one meal a day, that may be the only meal they get. (21 million children across America had NO school lunch last summer, once school was out!)

OK. I think that covers it for now. Thanks for the interest guys and also, Thanks for the welcome SW!

Blessings to you and yours,

Kim