Food Programs to Serve Seniors, Needy Families

By Margie Wood, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Feb. 10–Pueblo County’s Housing and Human Services department will initiate two food distribution programs at the county-owned McHarg Center in Avondale this month.

The two programs are the commodities supplemental food program, which serves primarily senior citizens and mothers and children 1-6 years old; and the emergency food assistance program, which serves low-income households.

Department Director Ted Ortiviz said Avondale-area residents may register for the programs during the distribution days, Feb. 20 and 22, from 9 a.m. to noon both days. (The commodities program is not available to people who already are on the Women, Infants, Children nutrition program.)

“We’re hoping to reach more people in that area, who may not have been able to get into town in the past,” Ortiviz said. The McHarg Center is accessible to handicapped people, he noted.

In recent years, all the food distribution has been conducted at the HHS building at 2631 E. Fourth St. To ease some bottlenecks at the department during distribution weeks, the county has been giving 30 percent of its emergency assistance food to Care & Share for distribution, and that portion will be reduced to 20 percent with the Avondale outreach, Ortiviz said.

Care & Share has used the food to support its mobile pantry outreach, but Ortiviz said the mobile pantry has been reduced in recent months from eight sites to five — the Cooperative Care Center and Salvation Army Downtown, the Solid Rock Full Gospel Church at 2006 E. 11th St., North Side Christian Church at 2901 High St.; and Valley Community Church in Colorado City.

“We do want to continue our partnership with Care & Share, but we’ve already seen an expansion in our distribution because we extended hours at our building,” Ortiviz said.

Hours at the county building are 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and each program has distribution days one week each month. In the past, the emergency assistance program distribution was every other month, but the state government asked the county to make it monthly.

Ortiviz noted that both food programs will be available both days at Avondale, and he hopes to make similar accommodations at the HHS building for families that are enrolled in both programs.

Susie Mondragon has joined HHS as the food specialist. She’s the wife of Jose Mondragon, director of the county’s Social Services department, and had experience at a food pantry in Denver before they moved to Pueblo. “She’s been a godsend to us,” Ortiviz said.

He hopes to see a good response to the Avondale distribution, and said the program might be extended to the Fulton Heights center in Salt Creek in the future.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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