Fuel Hope Kitchen Launches To Provide 200,000 Meals For Frontline Workers In Remote Areas
Local organizations Birdcall, The Tuchman Family Foundation, Centura Health, TTEC, and Shamrock Foods join forces to serve healthcare heroes and their families in the outlying areas of Colorado
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DENVER, Dec. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/
Fuel Hope Kitchen (FHK) – formerly known as Fuel Denver Frontlines – is looking to the future while honoring its previous accomplishments under a new moniker. Founded by
Birdcall and
Centura Health,
Shamrock Foods to create a unique group that is designed
by the community for the community with a core mission of delivering meals to the frontline heroes working at hospitals in insecure food areas outside of the Greater Denver region.
Fafay Grestan, an employee with the Family & Intercultural Resource Center in Silverthorne, carries food supplies in May for a drive-thru food bank. The resource center has seen a significant increase in the demand for the food bank due to the pandemic.
Photo by Jason Connolly / Summit Daily archives
In a difficult year, when so many people and organizations have sacrificed and given back to the community, The Summit Foundation had a different idea for its 2020 Philanthropy Awards. Rather than give out 10 or so awards to individuals and groups, why not give the award to the entire Summit County community after all it’s been through amid the pandemic?
, a project launched by several individuals across the state, is working to serve meals to health care workers and their families in outlying areas of Colorado.
Formerly known as Fuel Denver Frontlines, the project has launched operations in a matter of days to prepare thousands of meals in donated kitchen space, while Shamrock Foods is distributing the packaged meals across the state. The work is being funded by a grant from The Tuchman Family Foundation, along with the support of Centura Health and other donors.
Fuel Hope Kitchen will deliver about 6,000 low-cost meals on a weekly basis every Wednesday and Friday to Centura Health hospitals located in Pueblo, Frisco, Colorado Springs and Cañon City. The goal is to deliver the 200,000 meals by spring.
Photo from Brianne Snow
Over $21,000 has been raised by the group over the past year
The Bag Ladies started out in 2008 when a few women began to make reusable bags out of clothes that wouldn’t sell in the Family & Intercultural Resource Center’s thrift store. When the pandemic created a massive need for cotton facial coverings, The Bag Ladies stepped up to the plate, sewing masks and giving profits and donations to the resource center. Since the group’s founding, over $200,000 have been raised. Close to 5,000 masks have been made this year.
Brianne Snow, the Family & Intercultural Resource Center’s executive director, explained that The Bag Ladies program started in 2008 when thrift store volunteer Kay Bullington noticed that a lot of clothing that couldn’t be sold ended up getting thrown away. Bullington decided to recycle these clothes by washing them and making them into bags for a suggested donation. Bullington has since moved away and the position of Lead Bag Lady
Photo from Jim Howard
As a chaplain at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, Karen Johns is one of a few Summit County residents who received a novel coronavirus vaccine this week.
To Johns, a member of Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church, the vaccine is a blessing. It’s the kind of thing that will help the county return to normal life, save jobs and improve current mental health and isolation struggles for many. However, in Johns’ mind that time is still a ways away even for churches amid a traditional time of celebration.
Though she’d love to have in-person Christmas services and household gatherings this coming week, her view is for people of faith that the decision to hold such gatherings comes down to “the admonition that we love one another.”