MONUMENT, Colo. — As Hunger Action Month continues, News5 is speaking with Tri-Lakes Cares about some of the changes the organization has seen over the past few years as the region grows, food prices rise, and the area the nonprofit covers continues to increase.
For over 40 years, Tri-Lakes Cares has served Northern El Paso County through a variety of food, housing, and financial assistance programs. The nonprofit also provides education, transportation, and wellness programs as well as connections with a wide variety of additional partners and nonprofits that assist community members in building financial stability.
News5 reporter Jon McMichael spoke to the folks at Tri-Lakes Cares about their mission in the video below:
One of the more forward-facing aspects of the nonprofit is its food assistance and market program. According to Bill Lyons, director of development and planning for Tri-Lakes Cares, the nonprofit handles around 400,000 pounds of food in a year.
Lyons says that the need for that food and their overall services is increasing.
"We look at the number of families that we're serving and a year or two ago we were seeing, on average, about five new families a month," said Lyons. "Now, we're seeing about 15 or 20 new families. The good news on that is that our rate, our increase of the number of families overall is not increasing at the same pace, that's evidence that families are receiving services, becoming stabilized, and leav[ing] the program on the other side."
The increase, according to Lyons, comes down to a multitude of factors that include:
- Growth of the region
- Increase of food prices
- Reduction of federal food assistance
- Increase in coverage area for Tri-Lakes Cares
In recent years, the nonprofit has expanded its reach further into northern Colorado Springs to meet a growing need.
"Because of all the in-fill in that area in recent years," said Lyons, "we've expanded our service area down to Interquest."
With this expansion in area covered, the nonprofit is also working to form additional relationships and partnerships with organizations in that community in order to form the financial support structure needed to best serve the area.
"We've got a proven model that works," commented Lyons. "All it takes is the financial support, the volunteer donations, the in-kind donations; we've done it here for 40 years, we suspect we can do it on a slightly larger scale for another 40 years."
To learn more about Tri-Lakes Cares and their ongoing mission as well as how you can get involved, click here.
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