COLORADO SPRINGS — It takes a village to make efforts like "Fill the Fridge" happen, but it also takes support from the community to help give food to people in need through Care and Share Food Bank.
To help distribute food to local families, the organization partners with more than 280 other organizations and school districts. One of them... is Harrison School District2.
About a dozen students from the district spent the past year volunteering their time and driving their personal cars to give food to local families in need, while Care and Share is the organization helping to provide all of the food.
"We've always worked in this community, doing things to bring the community together," said Woody Longmire, the volunteer coordinator for the school district. The students were taking courses for college credit and part of that is giving back to their community. "It's a great collaboration that's going on between organizations and school district."
Longmire said the student-led effort began about a year ago.
"We discovered that there were families who did not have transportation (to food distributions), and never had transportation, even before the pandemic," said Longmire, who also DJs and plays music at many of the events.
Natalia Hutchins and Jose Loa are among the dozen students who volunteered their time during the school year.
"You actually get to see families that need food, which actually made my day to be honest, and make me want to do community service even more," said Natalia Hutchins. "One mom kept saying 'thank you,' and I'm glad that I could be the one to make her day."
"We'd all set up boxes and bags full of food, just load them back in the truck and get the addresses and go from there," said Loa.
While many of those families were facing food insecurity during the pandemic, these students stepped up.
"I wanted to be a part of something, and I wanted to change something. I feel like it is a big impact even though its just food," said Hutchins.
"I'm more than happy to help them out and hopefully one day if I ever need something, I'm sure my community will have my back. We're a community here in District 2 and whenever you need help, we have each other's backs," said Loa.
With the summer months coming up, it's especially tough for families who rely on free or low cost meals from the school. Care and Share and Harrison School District 2 said delivering food is something they'll continue to do throughout the summer.
For more information on Fill the Fridge or how to donate, click here.
