COLORADO — The Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado is planning to receive over a million dollars as part of a wide-ranging Senate Appropriations Bill.
Senator John Hickenlooper and Senator Michael Bennet helped secure $82 million to fund 62 projects across the state. $1.05 million would go to Care and Share to help their fleet of trucks deliver more food to needy families across the region.
The food bank has routes that span 31 counties, from the Four Corners all the way to the Kansas border. The money is planned to go toward repairs and revamps of delivery trucks that deliver food to partnering agencies and eventually to dinner tables across Southern Colorado.
Nate Springer, CEO of Care and Share Food Bank, said the long routes put wear and tear on their fleets.
“Our truck drivers drive over 250,000 miles a year, so you can imagine the amount of wear and tear on our on our vehicles. Loading and unloading food every single day, driving five or six hours in one direction to the farthest reaches in Colorado, to be able to deliver food to our food pantries,” Springer said.
Wil Embry, the transportation manager for the food bank, said he is on the road three to four times a week. His team works behind the scenes to get food to tables, but has been experiencing barriers due to older trucks.
"We have a couple trucks that are down now that need to be replaced. When our trucks break down, we don't have the backup vehicles that we need, so we may have to delay that delivery for a couple days,” he said.
Embry said the money could help repair things like lift gates, improving engines and even go toward brand-new vehicles.
"We won't have to cancel as much we can stay current with our current schedule and be on time for all our jobs,” he said.
The Senate is expected to vote on the bills by the end of the year.
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