Ouray County Program Assists up to 20 Families Each Week

OURAY – Frank Leonardi has headed up Ouray County’s Food Bank since its inception over a decade ago. And in all the years he’s spent helping orchestrate the region’s only food service for locals in need, he can’t remember a time he’s seen the shelves quite so bare.

“Donations had been decent up to a few months ago, but it seemed like people just quit donating when it got to be spring,” said Leonardi last week, who added he doesn’t know for sure why donations – of cash as well as foodstuffs – have been so lean lately. “I know there’s more jobs around now, so maybe people think there’s not so much of a need anymore. But there are still people who can’t find work,” he said. And it’s those people – people who have lost their job, or have faced other hardships that have made it difficult to put food on the table – who are especially thankful for the Food Bank’s services.

Every week, Leonardi and his crew of volunteers put together bags of food and other home supplies, from pancake mix to laundry detergent, that they then distribute to families in need. Every Tuesday, the Food Bank distributes food to approximately 15-20 Ouray County families from its headquarters at the Calvary Assembly of God church in Ouray.

“It doesn’t totally feed them for the week, but it’s a big supplement,” Leonardi said.

“The ones who really need it are so grateful that anything we have for them is good enough, even when we’re running short on things.”

And lately, the shelves at the Calvary church’s Food Bank have been pretty bare. Typically, Leonardi said, the Food Bank receives much of its donations from the members of Ouray and Ridgway’s different church congregations, through food drives as well as cash donations. With the support of all the local churches as well as the county’s Social Services department, Ouray County’s Food Bank has been kept well-stocked; so much so that Leonardi discovered that people from Montrose had begun traveling to Ouray for the Tuesday distribution, after hearing that Ouray County’s Food Bank was so generous. (Leonardi said that the Ouray County Food Bank is reserved exclusively for Ouray County citizens, however.)

One-hundred percent of any cash donations the program receives goes directly to the purchase of needed food and other items, which Leonardi typically buys either from Duckett’s Market in Ouray (which offers big discounts to the Food Bank) or from the Rocky Mountain Food Bank in Grand Junction, where he is able to purchase food at very reduced rates.

But as he admitted, both food and cash donations have been running low these days, making it difficult to continue to provide for local families who need it. He hopes the naked shelves at the Food Bank will grow more bountiful in the upcoming summer months, however, with help from members of the Ouray and Ridgway communities.

Non-perishable food items (canned food, cereals, pastas, and the like) and all manner of baby products, from formula and baby food to diapers and wipes, are always in high demand. Paper products like toilet paper, as well as laundry and dish soap, are also needed at the Food Bank, (since those items cannot be purchased with Food Stamps.) All food donations must be unopened, and the Food Bank cannot take home-canned items or any type of medication.

Cash donations are also greatly appreciated.

Leonardi and his crew of volunteers, who he said are an extremely hard-working bunch who have helped keep the Food Bank afloat for nearly 12 years, do not require that recipients show any kind of proof of need to receive the weekly Food Bank distributions. That said, he hopes – especially in these lean times – that people do not take advantage of the program. “It was never a problem before, but I just want people to know that it’s a great service that I hope people don’t abuse,” said Leonardi, who sits on the Food Bank’s Board of Directors with Father Nat Foshage from St. Daniel’s Catholic Church and Pastor George Dakin from First Presbyterian Church.

To make a donation to the Ouray County Food Bank, contact Leonardi at 596-4631. He will arrange to pick up any donations. Items can also be dropped off at the Social Services office, located at the Ouray County Courthouse. Checks, made out to Calvary Assembly of God Food Bank, can be sent to P.O. Box 437, Ouray CO 81427.