Alamosa Voices supports food distribution

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On Tuesday, May 19 the Alamosa School District announced a planned break in their food distribution service. The food services team had been providing a massive upscale of the food distribution program since the beginning of COVID-19 closures.

The ASD food services team realized that hundreds of families relied on the District They were preparing over 700 meals daily. They extended their services to provide meals through the week end. They set up a complex delivery service utilizing the Alamosa Transportation Department with over a dozen pick up locations across the community. Families and youth continued to rely on this important service and especially now food scarcity is a real and relevant concern. It was going to leave a large hole in food security.

On Wednesday, May 20th, Alamosa Voices, a loose coalition of community members, convened to consider supporting the food distribution program while the Alamosa School District took a well-deserved break. By Friday, EF’s restaurant offered the use of their commercial kitchen and procurement of food. Ortega Middle School’s Sources of Strength program coordinated volunteers for meal prep. The Boys & Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley coordinated efforts, purchased supplies and served as the central pickup location.

Local businesses stepped up to support the effort as well. Safeway donated 10,000 bags. The Roast allowed the use of their cooler for food storage. Bimbo’s bakery donated sandwich bread. Alamosa School District transportation provided continued distribution. By Memorial Day, May 25th seven volunteers assembled at 6 a.m. at EF’s restaurant. They created meals for 600 people in three hours.

By Tuesday, there were 10 volunteers and the momentum was building. By Friday over 25 volunteers had helped with the project. They created and distributed 12,600 meals over five days. They reached over 600 youth.

Jamie Dominguez, of Alamosa Voices and EF’s said, “That was a massive project but we got it done. Always a pleasure working with this group.” It was a phenomenal community effort that ensured that our youth and families were fed with high quality food. The Alamosa Voices team wants to thank all of the community partners who helped with production, distribution, and coordination of this effort.

Particularly they are thankful for the incredible work of the Alamosa School District and other Food Service providers who feed our youth everyday and will resume services on Monday, June 1st.