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Sclerotic economy has Durango Food Bank booming

Demand up 13 percent compared with 2014

While many La Plata County families are looking forward to celebrating the holidays, an increasing number are food insecure and seeking help from the Durango Food Bank.

The organization provided food for 450,000 meals in 2014, and demand is up 13 percent year to date comapred with last year, Director Sarah Smith said.

“There’s not the huge rate of repeat clients many people think we have either,” she said. “About 90 percent have not been to the Food Bank in the last two years; they’re either first-time clients or clients we helped years ago who are in crisis again.”

The bank has seen an 85 percent increase in number of meals over the last four to five years, she said, and its limited space, just over 2,000 square feet, in Bodo Industrial Park is not only bursting at the seams, it doesn’t allow the nonprofit to help people as much as it could with more space.

“At a minimum, we need to double that,” Smith said, “and even that would be tight. Part of the frustration is parking. We’re in a condo unit sandwiched between two businesses. We’ve had four fender benders this year alone.”

To add more parking, the Food Bank will have to rip out its 2-year-old community garden, primarily the work product of clients, that allowed the nonprofit to provide fresh produce.

The search is on for another building, but as everyone knows in Durango, that is easier said than done. The Food Bank has raised about $50,000 to date, but until it knows whether its looking for a place to rent, a place to purchase or a piece of land to build on, setting a fundraising goal is impossible. The new site has to be in the city limits so clients can arrive via Durango Transit.

One important segment of the population the Food Bank could help more if it had more space is seniors 60 and older, Smith said.

“We’re running a (U.S. Department of Agriculture) program for seniors that comes with boxes prepacked with foods seniors tend not to get in their diet,” she said. “But we’ve had to cap it at 85, because that’s 2½ pallets, and we just don’t have space for more.”

No local numbers are available, but a statewide study showed 1 in 7 seniors didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, and a local study two years ago showed 13.2 percent of La Plata County residents missed at least one meal a day. And 30 percent of the food-insecure population does not qualify for food stamps, she said.

“No one wants to hear the need is growing for food,” Smith said. “And people tend to think the Food Bank is synonymous with Manna Soup Kitchen. But they serve about 70,000 meals a year, and we serve more than six times as many meals as they do. We work very hard with each other to respect donor funds and not duplicate clients or services.”

abutler@durangoherald.com



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