The best time to start visiting a food pantry is before you are urgently in need of food. This allows you to save money you would have spent on some food items for purchasing other necessities, as well as avoiding ever reaching a state of emergency.
In fact, most food pantries hope their visitors will do this, so they welcome people coming to see them before, during, and after their time of need.
Many of our TimeBank members are finding Boulder’s food abundance a welcome gift during this pandemic when prices are going up yet and incomes are going down. Accepting food from local pantries allows them to chance to catch up on other expenses. Several of these options are NOT income-based; the only requirement is being a Boulder County resident.
A group of TimeBank members are meeting on the morning of Wednesday, October 9 at the Harvest of Hope Food Pantry at 2960 Valmont Road (between 28th and 30th on the south side of Valmont). Harvest of Hope allows visitors to select their own food items as though you were in a supermarket (although there are limits on how much of each type of food one can take).
If this will be your first visit, be prepared to complete some paperwork, which you can do there or print and complete in advance by going to their website’s sign up page.
Whether or not this is your first time, you need to bring your driver’s license and another form of proof of residence in Boulder County such as an electric bill, and, of course, wear a mask.
If you can’t make this outing, you can visit them on your own any weekday morning between 9 and 11am, although it is best to arrive by 10:30 to lessen the possibility that they will have run out of some items. When we’re finished at Harvest of Hope, we caravan to Community Food Share’s Mobile Pantry at Nest Apartments in South Boulder (near Frasier Meadows, which is at 4990 Osage Drive). The truck is there from 10 to 11am. To access food here you will need your driver’s license and, of course, a mask. They give out pre-packaged boxes of food (no selection).
Typically, we park close together so we can exchange unwanted items among the group. This mobile pantry is at Nest Apartments twice a month and you can pick up their schedule while we’re there.
You are welcome participate in this abundance. You can RSVP through MeetUp to let us know you’re coming, or you can just show up. And you can bring non-member friends. Typically, we have four or five members on each excursion.
No $TD payment is required for this event.