24 Years Later, Food Bank Carries on Amid Pandemic

Feeling stir-crazy as the pandemic continues to cancel your favorite fall and winter events and other plans? Try your hand at helping others — the Sharing Ministries food bank is one of many organizations that assists people who are struggling, even when there is not a public health crisis in play. And, even when there is no pandemic, Sharing Ministries always needs the help of volunteers and donations.

“We’re seeing a lot of newer clients come in,” Sharing Ministries Executive Director Oneda Doyal said.

Although there are about the same number of clients in need, many who came into through the doors are now receiving home delivery because of the pandemic — and, she said, the ministry is seeing more Delta-area families than it has before, while continuing to distribute food to nonprofits in Montrose, Delta, Ouray, Telluride, the West End and Gunnison.

“We’re serving anyone who walks through our doors,” Doyal said.

Sharing Ministries had its genesis after a retired pastor, Frank Koenig, and his wife began talking with others about local needs.

“He felt there was a need for low-income people. He didn’t have a dime to his name; he didn’t have any food. He had a lot of pushback from the community because the community didn’t realize there was as much need,” Doyal said.

Through a chance meeting of a stranger at the post office, Koenig was able to get help establishing a nonprofit. The first month it opened in 1996, Sharing Ministries served 96 people.

“Twenty-four years later, we are distributing to about 5,500 people a month in five counties,” Doyal said.

Koenig passed away shortly before Sharing Ministries broke ground on its new facility, but his vision lives on.

“He foresaw that the community and surrounding community needed it. He was honored and proud to see how far we had come,” said Doyal.

Last year, the nonprofit distributed more than 400 tons of food.

“That kind of shows that it takes a lot of people — it takes a village — to distribute that food and make that happen. That’s why we’re always in need of volunteers.”

The need right now is “desperately bad,” Doyal said.

“We do have policies and procedures in place. We’ve been open for the entire COVID (restriction periods) because we are a critical service. We’re still serving,” she said.

“We have all kinds of things people can do to help give back.”

Volunteers can work in the warehouse, as front-room greeters, at the Green Cupboard retail shop downtown, whose jewelry sale profits go fully to Sharing Ministries, and even with data entry, yard clean-up and committee service. They are critical to continued service to the homebound, as well as to the growing number of homeless people being seen.

“We’re in the holiday season. We have a lot of envelope stuffing that needs done. In the warehouse, we are desperate to have people help with distribution,” Doyal said.

That kind of work entails making boxes, applying barcodes, filling baskets and sorting produce.

The ministry obtains much of its food through Food Bank of the Rockies, which it can obtain for pennies on the dollar. The COVID-19 restrictions have for now limited the ministry’s ability to accept food donated from private homes.

“We don’t have enough volunteers to sanitize everything that comes through the doors. So we are encouraging financial donations right now, for sure, since we are not taking food drives and individual donations,” Doyal said.

COVID-19 has made the need for cash that much more keen.

“Right now, we’re doing no fundraisers due to COVID. Hopefully, in 2021, we’ll go back to that,” she said.

People can continue to donate new, clean socks for the sock ministry, which helps meet one of the biggest in-demand items at homeless shelters and similar facilities.

“With 2020 being the way it is and more and more people in need, I think that we should all be giving back at a time where it’s uncertain, and help our fellow man,” Doyal said.

“When you volunteer, especially during times like these, you go home and feel like you’ve helped someone. It’s always nice to pass that along. Sharing Ministries has been very blessed and it’s an honor to serve our community.”

To volunteer, call 970-240-8385; stop by 49 N. First St. between 7:30 a.m. and about 1 p.m., Monday — Friday, or visit sharingministries.com for an application. To volunteer at the Green Cupboard, stop by the office at 443 E. Main St.

Donations may be made via the website, or mailed to Sharing Ministries Inc., 49 N. First St., Montrose, CO 81401-3660.

“We’re honored that we are here and able to serve our community and those in need,” Doyal said. “Our priority is to make sure no one in our community goes hungry, or in the surrounding community, and we serve with dignity and respect, no questions asked.”

Originally published in the Montrose Daily Press.
Katharhynn Heidelberg is the Montrose Daily Press assistant editor and senior writer. Follow her on Twitter, @kathMDP.