Christine Bucher
You make an impact through your support of TLC!
You make an impact through your support of TLC!
Just a quick snapshot of our impact in October 2017! This is not possible without YOU!!
‘Tis the season for food drives!
‘Tis the season for food drives!
Like many food banks and food pantries, Tri-Lakes Cares is entering the hectic season of food drives when community groups and individuals collect food for our pantry. With your support last year, our pantry distributed over 200,000 lbs of food through the various programs!
We are so grateful for the generosity of so many BUT sometimes the items donated are not always the most useful or the most needed to stock our shelves.
Here are a few guidelines to consider when hosting a food drive:
Visit our Current Pantry needs page to see what is most needed: Pantry Current Needs You can also call Michèle, our Food Programs Manager to inquire about specific needs at (719) 481-4864, ext 111. She can also provide you with collection bins for smaller drives and answer any questions about donating food.
Large packages or cans are great money savers for the buyer BUT unless a family has 10 members or more in the household, these large sizes are impractical for our food pantry. We are not set up to break down large bags or boxes of beans, rice, flour or other staples (10 lbs or larger) and typically we send them to the Marian House Soup Kitchen on our Friday morning bread runs.
Avoid baby food. Believe it or not, there is little demand for these items. Most families that have infants or small children benefit from the WIC program (Women Infants and Children nutrition program) which provides them with infant formula and baby food. Most of our client families have older children and the occasional donations we receive of baby food are sufficient to meet the needs.
Exotic foods. Ever
y food pantry receives those odd ite ms (usually left over from gift baskets) like canned oysters, wild game, oddly flavored coffees or condiments, strange vegetable combinations, etc. These items can be donated – paying attention to “best use” by dates (more on that in the next bullet) – but often they will remain sitting on our shelves as long as on your own pantry shelves.
What about those “best use by” dates or “sell by” dates? Believe it or not, these are not required by federal law (according to the USDA website), except for on infant formula. Dates are provided by manufactures to help consumers determine the best quality and time of consumption of food products. There is a lot of confusion revolving around these dates, but a good rule of thumb to follow is within one year of the date stamped on the can or box is acceptable. Anything older than that, we will not be able to use.
Watch out for those dents and broken boxes! Please do not donate cans that are sever
ely dented, boxes that are torn or open, or any open or started food items. We will just have to dispose of them.
Consider nutrition value. A large number of the clients we serve are senior citizens, who are struggling to make ends meet. Items such as gluten free, low sodium and low sugar can be in demand, but if we don’t have it on our shelves, it makes it difficult to meet those needs.
If you don’t want to donate food, there are two other ways that you can help our pantry:
Shop “Buy It Forward”. Once a month on the first weekend of the month, the King Soopers on Baptist Road offers pre-packaged bags of the current month’s grocery items needed for our pantry. When you do your own grocery shopping, add a “Buy it Forward” bag to your cart. The bags are collected and picked up by a volunteer and delivered to Tri-Lakes Cares. It’s easy and doesn’t require any extra shopping on your part.
Donate! Believe it or not, your financial contribution can be stretched further through the buying power we have with Care & Share Food Bank, where we can typically pay 19 cents per pound for food. Your $25.00 could purchase 132 lbs of food and other items; or support other needs in the pantry. Click on the big “Donate Now” button at the top of the page to make a contribution today!
However you choose to support us, our most heartfelt thank you!
In the eyes of our clients – How are we doing?
In the eyes of our clients – How are we doing?
Periodically, we like to know how we are doing and what impact our programs and services have on our clients’ lives. In order to capture this information, we conduct periodic anonymous surveys, asking clients questions on how the help they received made a difference in their lives.
Check out this cool infographic created by Francisca Blanc, our Development Associate, to visually show some of the results from our most recent survey.
Too much Zucchini? Share the bounty!
August 8th is National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day!
Ah Zucchini! Easy to grow and quick to take over the garden of an unsuspecting gardener (especially the novice), the ubiquitous zucchini is a summer squash that can be served up in so many ways – sautéed, roasted, boiled, fried, added to bread recipes, muffins and other baked goods. A search on Google quickly turns up nearly as many recipes as a single plant does zucchini.
Seriously, 
access to fresh fruits and vegetables is often difficult for those with limited means, including the individuals and families who come to Tri-Lakes Cares. Through our “Help Yourself Market” and the generous donations of our food rescue partners, we are able to offer a wide variety of produce – both familiar and sometimes odd – that many of us take for granted.
If you are a gardener, you can help by donating any extra tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, green beans, and yes, even zucchini! And, you don’t even have to sneak it onto our porch – ring our doorbell and we will gladly take it in.
Do you have a favorite zucchini recipe? Share it in the comments section and we will re-share with our clients, volunteers and staff.
Imagine if Apple had to run like a nonprofit
Many people comment on how a nonprofit should be run like a business, but what would happen if a business was expected to run like a nonprofit, with the expectations that the public has of a nonprofit? Vu Le, Executive Director of Ranier Valley Corps, and blogger for the nonprofit world (Nonprofit…and Fearless), has imagined this in a recent blog posting.
Imagine if Apple had to run like a nonprofit
We nonprofits deal with unique challenges that our for-profit colleagues never have to think about. If you ever sat in the dark for hours listening to REM and eating Otter Pops and wondering what it would like for a large for-profit like Apple to have to run like a nonprofit, wonder no more! I’ve done it for you this week! (What, like your vacation is so much more interesting). And I asked NAF’s web designer and artist, Stacy Nguyen, to draw up some comics.
At the retail store:
Customer: Hi, I’d like to buy this latest iPhone. How much is it?
Apple employee: $700 dollars.
Customer: Here you go. But I want most of this money to be spent on direct costs. No more than $70 should be going to indirect costs like rent, insurance, etc. I also don’t want any of this $700 to go toward advertisement or staff salaries.
Apple employee: We’ll designate these restrictions in our systems.
Customer: At the end of the year, I’d like a report on what you spent this money on.
Apple employee: We provide quarterly financial reports, and would be glad—
Customer: No no no. I don’t want the financial reports on your entire company. I only want a report on what my $700 specifically was spent on. Only my $700.
Apple employee: OK…Would you like to be added to our e-newsletter list?
Meeting with a key shareholder:
Tim Cook, CEO: As you can see, this quarter we surpassed our sales goal, moving over one million units, which is 15% more than we had anticipated.
Shareholder: Congratulations, that’s really wonderful to hear. But…that’s more like an output. What are your outcomes?
Tim Cook: I’m glad you asked! Of the one million iPhones we sold, over 223,000 people used their phones to update their resumes and applied for jobs. Of that population, almost 15% then actually got a job. Meanwhile, about 115,000 seniors buy our phones, and surveys indicate that nearly 7% use their phones to go on to WebMD after they fall and break their ankle. Our phones allow these seniors to figure out how to create makeshift tourniquets for their broken ankles, which prevents them from going to the emergency room, which saves taxpayers about $1.7 million.
Shareholder: Hm…
Tim Cook: Our phones have also reduced crimes by 30% in some cities, since teenagers and young adults have been using their phones to take naked butt selfies, or NBS, and to look at viral cat videos instead of robbing banks, starting gangs, or committing other crimes.
Shareholder: That’s great to hear.
Tim Cook: Would you consider renewing your stocks this coming year?
Shareholder: I’ll have to consult with the family, Tim. Our investment priorities might change this year. I’ll let you know in 9 months. But to be honest, the ROI seems kind of low with only 15% finding jobs and 7% of seniors using their iPhones to learn how to make tourniquets after they break their ankles…
At the retail store:
Customer: Hi, I’d like to buy the iPhone 8 Double Plus.
Employee: I can help you with that. What color would you like? We have black, white, or Burnished Coral?
Customer: Black. But before I buy this phone, what is your sustainability plan? How do you plan to sustain this store after I bought this phone and I’m gone? How are you diversifying your revenues so that you’re not so dependent on retail customers?
Employee: Well, we are courting government contracts, as well as developing relationships with, uh, local and national, um…
Customer: Sorry, it doesn’t seem like you’ve thought much about sustainability. It’s for Apple’s own good to diversify its revenues and not be so dependent on its customers. I’ll buy a phone later when you have that figured out.
Staff meeting:
Tim Cook: Investors are breathing down my neck about our outcomes. We need to increase the number of people, especially seniors, who use our iPhones to look things up after falling and suffering injuries. What ideas do you all have?
Angela, CFO/COO/CTO/Janitor: Our R&D is working on a feature that would automatically alert emergency services when a senior falls.
Tim Cook: Excellent. How is that going?
Angela: Only 340 customers are allowing a portion of their iPhone payments to be used on Research and Development. So we’ve been short-staffed. In fact, our entire R&D department is basically just Eduardo, who graduated last month with a Master’s in Botany, but he took several online courses on coding.
Eduardo, SVPR&D: If you think about it, plants and phones are actually a lot alike.
Tim Cook: OK…let’s keep working on that feature. Meanwhile, how is the gala planning coming along?
Steve, DD/SVPCom/QA/HR: Better than we thought, boss! Listen to this, after a bunch of discussion at the last event planning meeting, we finally came up with a cool name for the gala. At first, we thought we would just call it “The Apple Gala.” But then we thought, why not be a little cheeky and fun. So now we are calling it…“The Gala Apple.”
Tim Cook:….
Steve: Gala is a type of—
Tim Cook: I know what gala apples are! How is recruitment for table captains coming along?
Steve: We have 5 captains confirmed. Zuck says he can’t captain, but he’ll raise his paddle at the $1,000 level during the ask.
At the retail store:
Customer: Hi, I heard that you are asking for donations of gently-used lightning cables?
Apple employee: Yes, it’s for our initiative to provide charging cables to low-income individuals during the holidays
Customer: Well, I don’t have any lightning cables. But, I got a box of clothes hangers and twelve cans of beets I bought five years ago that I never got around to eating.
Employee: I’m not really sure we can use those…
Customer: I’m sure you can. Poor people love beets. I already dropped it off in your donation box. If you could send me a tax receipt, that would be swell!
At Thanksgiving
Tim Cook’s Mom: How is your job going, Timmy?
Tim Cook: It’s great, Mom. It can be stressful, but really rewarding. Our iPhones support thousands of people as they look for jobs. They also reduce crime and save taxpayers money, and help a lot of seniors when they fall and sprain their ankles.
Tim Cook’s Dad: Are you making enough money? Are you doing OK? Your mother and I are kind of worried about you, son. When will you find a real job?
Tim Cook: Mom, Dad, we’ve been through this. I’m not going to get a “real job.” Helping people IS. A. REAL. JOB! I’m making a difference in the world!
Tim Cook’s Dad: All right, no need to get defensive.
Tim Cook: I’M NOT DEFENSIVE!!!…Look, will you come to the Gala Apple next month? You can get a better picture of the work I’m doing.
Tim Cook’s Mom: We’ll check our calendar, honey. It might be your cousin’s housewarming party. Such a nice house. He’s a lawyer, you know. Have you seen his NBS at the Grand Canyon?
END
This blog posting was first printed June 26, 2017. It is reprinted/republished with permission. http://nonprofitaf.com/contact/
Crunching on fresh fruits and vegetables! – June is “National Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Month”
By Kate Lythgoe, Food Programs Manager
When most people think of a food pantry they envision shelves of non-perishable items: canned fruits, vegetables, beans and boxed pasta and cereal. While Tri-Lakes Cares does have a pantry that houses those things, we also have a food program called Help Yourself that may surprise some people in what we offer.
He
lp Yourself is a perishable food pantry, which is run on donations through community retail partners as part of their food rescue efforts and is a no-cost program for Tri-Lakes Cares to offer. Help Yourself contains fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, meat and bakery products and is set up to look like a grocery store. Glass door refrigerators display milk, eggs, yogurt as well as cut and packaged fruit and vegetables. Our produce bins hold potatoes, onions, peppers, bananas, apples and oranges, to name a few.
Help Yourself allows clients to shop for themselves, as anyone would at a grocery store. They can examine the fruit, and pick the best one; they can check the dates on the yogurt to confirm they can eat it before it’s inedible.
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In September of last year, our clients took a survey and at that time the most common request was that they would like to see more produce, dairy and meat. We are continually working to procure these items for our clients. We have come a long way from September, and will continue to move forward.
This month, Next Step Ministry will be constructing a garden wall on the south side of our building. This garden will grow herbs and vegetables for client use. We are constantly striving to become self-sustainable, just as we ask our clients to be while using our programs.
If you are a gardener, there are opportunities to get involved to bring more fresh fruits and vegetables to our clients:
- You can help with the garden wall project. Please contact Kelly Bryant, Volunteer Manager at (719) 481-4864, ext 117 or volunteermanager@tri-lakescares.org.
- You can donate extra produce from your own garden. Please contact me at (719) 481-4864, ext 111 or foodprogramsmanager@tri-lakescares.org
For more information and recipes about incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables, visit the USDA website at: National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month
Did you know? May is National Mental Health Awareness Month!
By Paula Blair and Francisca Blanc
What is mental health? It is the way your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors affect your life. Good mental health leads to positive self-image and in turn, satisfying relationships with friends and others. Having good mental health helps you make good decisions and deal with life’s challenges at home, work, or school (American Psychological Association). However, a whole month dedicated to being aware of mental health? YES!
As Americans, we tend to be self-reliant, problem-solving enterprising people. Great for managing a career, a home, or post-secondary education. We get sick or injured; we get fixed-up and move on with our lives. Nobody would think twice about getting help to fix a broken bone or get medicine for pneumonia, would they? Would you? What about getting help when you have experienced a loss of a loved one, a pet, or a job? Or when you mentally hit a wall and can’t think straight because you have been working non-stop for several days plus managing (trying to) a personal life? That is like being mired in a mental muck with no obvious way to help yourself. You try and try and it seems as if the mental muck keeps sucking your life force away. You begin to feel desperate, overwhelmed, and not hopeful. Soon, your work-life/school-life/home-life begins to deteriorate, chunks of “you” break-off and the only things which seem to provide relief are sleep, isolation, and sometimes, high-risk behaviors. It is a dark, downward spiral. There is help!
In El Paso County, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Colorado Springs chapter offers free of cost classes and support groups for individuals, family members and others to help you understand the complexities of different mental illnesses, learn how to access resources, and most importantly, connect with others who have shared experiences.
As many resources are available online, it’s important to remember that taking care of your mental illness requires medical attention as any other physical illness. Talking to your primary doctor can be the first step if you think you or someone you love suffers of mental illness. Seeking a psychiatrist and/or a therapist is a crucial next step, as mental illness requires specialized training for proper medication and therapy.
Ultimately, self-care: exercising regularly, eating healthy meals, taking the medication, and sustaining a healthy social life are all important when addressing mental health. If you or a loved one might experience mental illness and you are not sure what to do, you should talk about it with your primary doctor. Reach out to NAMI Colorado Springs by calling them at 719-473-8477. For a crisis situation, you can call the Colorado Crisis and Support Line 844-493-8255.
To learn more about Mental Health Month visit the Mental Health America.
“Volunteering is a calling” by Kelly Bryant
Merriam Webster defines the word ‘volunteer’, as a person who does work without getting paid to do it. Although the definition put forth by dictionary.com says virtually the same thing, I prefer their verbiage – a volunteer is a person who performs a service willingly and without pay. Why would anyone is his/her right mind be willing to do this? Volunteering is a great way to fills one’s time in retirement, and it’s also an easy way to meet others in your community – whether it be at school, at church or just in the local neighborhood. Some people volunteer in order to develop new skills and others do it because of the proven health benefits it provides. While giving their time benefits volunteers in many ways, it is not why they do it. I believe it is a calling – a calling to help others who are not as fortunate as they are; or to participate in the education and enrichment of their children; or to raise money for an organization for which they are passionate; or to aid people who have survived disaster. The list goes on and on. Yes, volunteers seem to be fueled by compassion and a deep desire to make the world a better place.
Americans volunteer in huge numbers. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 63 million Americans gave 8 billion hours of volunteer service in 2016. Using the national estimated per-hour value assigned to these hours by Independent Sector*, the total monetary value of that service is a staggering 193 million dollars.
Taking that down to a local level, our Tri-Lakes Cares volunteers worked a total of 15,894 hours in 2016, which averages out to just under 75 hours per volunteer. The 2016 per-hour volunteer value in the State of Colorado is $25.97. A quick calculation shows us that just one volunteer working an average number of hours annually, saves Tri-Lakes Cares nearly $2,000 each year. As a result we are able to make those funds available to clients by way of added services. The $2,000 saved might enable us to provide school supplies for 160 kids. Or, we may use it to cover the cost of our entire Snack Pack program for ten weeks. Again, this is the impact of just one volunteer.
National Volunteer Appreciation Week is Sunday, April 23 through Saturday, April 29. It’s a time to thank volunteers everywhere for a job well-done. A simple thank you hardly seems adequate, but it’s all we’ve got.
To our TLC volunteers: You come and faithfully serve our clients week after week, month after month, year after year. We are inspired by your grace and professionalism. We are awed by your generosity and commitment. We are amazed by your talent. You are stellar, and we are honored to know you. From the bottom of our hearts……THANK YOU!!!
*A national membership organization that brings together a diverse set of nonprofits, foundations, and corporations to advance the common good.
“Feed People, Not Landfills” by Kate Lythgoe, Food Programs Manager
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 to promote environmental protection. One challenge of growing concern is that a tremendous amount of food is currently being wasted. In fact, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted annually (more than 350 pounds of food for every person on the planet)! National Geographic reports that if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, behind China and the U.S.
The FAO of the United Nations estimates that 805 million people suffer from starvation globally, and yet each year around the world, nearly 3 trillion pounds of food is wasted. That is enough to fully feed every one of those hungry individuals all year, two times over!!
There is enough food to feed all of those that need it and many of the small actions individuals take in their homes can actually have tangible direct impacts on the issue at hand. While using an energy-saving light bulb is a good thing to do, it is further removed from affecting the world than donating food to a pantry, which not only keeps food from going into a landfill, but puts it directly into the stomach of someone in need.
What does this mean to Tri-Lakes Cares? Well – did you know that we rescued 80,933 pounds from our corporate partners last fiscal year? And, in fiscal year 2017, we have rescued 46,844 pounds from landfills in six months.
What do we do with the food that we rescue?
- Offer fresh and fun alternative foods to our clients beyond the regular pantry staples normally provided;
- Share any excess we have with other agencies to help meet their client needs;
- Feed animals in rehabilitation with a Department of Wildlife partner;
- And, generate only 2.5% food waste
If you are inspired to reduce your carbon footprint in honor of Earth Day, check out these tips below:
- Check out Save the Food for tips on how to meal plan, how to shop and how to decipher dates on products.
- Check out the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s tips for consumers
- Download the USDA’s Food Keeper app to learn how long food will stay fresh
This Saturday, ride your bike, plant a tree or donate food to Tri-Lakes Cares! All of these actions will help create a better tomorrow!
Celebrating Dr. Robert Gibbs!
March 2
5 through 31 is “National Physicians Week”! Organized by Physicians Working Together, this week is an opportunity to highlight and thank those doctors across the country who provide quality care, especially those in rural or minority communities or serving disadvantaged populations. Patients and colleagues can help show their support by spreading the news of their good work through social media and thanking them with a red carnation.
We would like to issue a BIG THANK YOU to Dr. Robert Gibbs, the Penrose-St Francis volunteer physician who provides medical care and prescription services to our clients. Dr. Gibbs works closely with Nurse Cindy Stickel, the Faith Community Nurse from Penrose-St. Francis in our Neighborhood Nurse Center to make sure clients have access to medical care, medical referrals and medical advice who otherwise might not be able to do so. He is available by appointment, every Tuesday morning.
Dr. Gibbs was the catalyst for the medical clinic at Tri-Lakes Cares! In 2008, Dr. Gibbs approached Jackie Sward, a Faith Community Nurse previously employed by Penrose-St. Francis Health Services regarding the health needs of the local community and possible gaps in care for the low-income or those who were uninsured or underinsured. He offered to volunteer his services as a family practice physician.
On May 20, 2008, the Tri-Lakes
Volunteer Outreach Clinic was opened, housed by Tri-Lakes Cares. In the early years of the clinic, Dr. Gibbs met with and treated up to 15 patients per week, especially those who experienced financial difficulties during the “Great Recession.” In 2010, he consulted and treated with 449 duplicated patients.
Those client numbers have dropped in recent years due to the Affordable Care Act, with more people having access to affordable insurance or qualifying for Medicaid and other insurance. In 2016, his case load has dropped to 25 clinic visits.
But, Dr. Gibbs continues to serve with compassion. Even if there is only one patient scheduled for an appointment, he will be there to see that patient. He sees each patient as an individual and devotes as much time as needed to ensure the best medical approach and care is provided.
One patient wrote “…he genuinely cares for his patients regardless of their ability to pay for services.”
A volunteer noted “His gentle treatment of his patients and the clients we serve here is very heartwarming to watch. He takes time to know the individual he is serving and understands not only their medical needs, but also their special life’s circumstances. I feel it gives him a window, or a clue, into their lives.”
In some ways, you could almost think of Dr. Gibbs as the “friendly country doctor” but he is so much more than that at Tri-Lakes Cares. To clients he is a trusted confidant and expert, while to volunteers and staff he is a dear friend and co-worker.
We are truly blessed to have Dr. Gibbs with us! Thank you for all that you do every day and especially at Tri-Lakes Cares!