ARBOLES – Nestled among mesas southeast of Ignacio near Navajo Reservoir, the unincorporated community of Arboles offers its approximately 400 residents a rugged rural lifestyle.
Visitors come for attractions like Chimney Rock, Navajo Lake Resort, ghost towns and scenic views. They stay for the peace and quiet, said Susan Halkin, founder and co-coordinator of the TARA Food Pantry in Arboles. But isolation brings challenges.
The nearest grocery store is about 20 miles away in Ignacio, qualifying Arboles as a U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified food desert, she said. The next closest options are in Pagosa Springs, 34 miles away.
The USDA defines a rural food desert as a low-income area with at least 500 people, or 33% percent of the population, living more than 10 miles from the nearest supermarket or grocery store.
Halkin said many working families struggle to get by, and many seniors – a prominent demographic in Arboles – can’t afford gas to drive into town for food.
The median age of Arboles is 53, and the median income is $42,500, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Halkin founded the TARA Food Pantry at the community center in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It now serves 70 families a week and began as an essential service for local households.
In the last week of February, the pantry served 71 seniors, 57 adults and 28 children – a typical week, she said. It operates from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“It’s grown and grown, and it continues to grow with the situation that the world’s in,” she said. “We have the working poor, mom and dad who work both jobs. … We’re here for a lot of our seniors, too.”
Arboles residents faced new hardships in late January when a federal funding freeze was imposed, Halkin said.
“We relied on over $25,000 worth of funding from LFPA (Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program) and another federal grant that we’re not even able to apply for,” she said. “We’re doing OK for now, but in the future, grant money is not going to be available and we’re not going to be sustainable.”
The pantry was recently awarded The Emergency Food Assistance Program funding, but that too has been frozen, she said.
Now in its fifth year, the pantry has become vital to the community, she said. She’s unsure what will happen to the 70 families who depend on it weekly if it closes.
“They had a window (when) it was open for like five days and I got a call from a couple of the granters. They’re like, ‘Spend your money now, as of Monday you may not be able to get it.’ I was like, ‘OK,’” she said.
Federal grants and assistance programs provide much of the pantry’s funding. It also receives support from Care and Share Food Bank, Healthy Archuleta Food Distribution Center and, recently, a grant from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
The broader community helps out, too. In January, Indivisible Durango raised $5,275 during a three-day food drive at Albertsons, south City Market and the Durango Community Recreation Center, according to volunteer Beth Lamberson. Five volunteers delivered 4,500 pounds of donated food to Arboles residents.
“I’ve seen what happens when everybody here comes together, and it’s just the most beautiful thing,” said Elaine Nobriga, a board member with TARA Historical Society and Community Center.
She said 90 meals were served during a Thanksgiving event at the community center in November, and residents brought food to share.
Halkin said the pantry receives food and financial donations from the community. Cash or money order donations are preferred since the pantry’s food purchases are tax-exempt.
Halkin remains optimistic. She said more young people are moving to the area, drawn by the outdoors, and she’s hopes they will help preserve the Arboles community.
The community center includes a library with books, magazines and DVDs for residents to borrow, and a thrift store whose proceeds support operations. Historical items and artifacts are displayed in one corner to preserve Arboles’ heritage.
Before the food pantry was founded, the community center mostly hosted birthdays, graduations, neighborhood watch meetings, and police and fire gatherings, Halkin said.
Arboles and the TARA Historical Society and Community Center
The TARA Historical Society and Community Center was founded in the 1970s to preserve the culture, history and community of the towns of Tiffany, Allison, Rosa and Arboles. Rosa and the original town of Los Arboles were flooded and submerged in the 1950s and 1960s to accommodate a Navajo Dam/Lake project, according to community center board members.
The modern community center at 333 Milton Road, Arboles, was constructed in 2010 and 2011 on land donated by Archuleta County, according to Beth Lamberson, who has written grant applications for the community center.
Families were displaced by the submerger, some resettling in modern Arboles, said Ida Theys, TARA Historical Society and Community Center co-founder.
“Since we opened this up in 2020 it seems to be the hub of the community,” she said.
Community center Board President Sherri Foster said Arboles has grown stronger since the center opened 2010, and the town seems to attract kind, outgoing people.
“When I think about it, there aren’t many people in Arboles I don’t like,” she said, laughing. “Everybody’s neighborly, everybody’s neighborly, everybody’s concerned about their neighbors.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story misidentified the positions of some current and former TARA board members. Ida Theys is a co-founder of TARA and Sherri Foster is the board president.
