Westminster Presbyterian FISH Food Pantry

Westminster Presbyterian FISH Food Pantry participated in last year’s Inclusive Capacity Build Program, and we would like to highlight a couple of the ways they are providing welcoming and inclusive hunger relief services to their community. They have introduced a Culturally Responsive section of their drive-up food pantry wherein their neighbors can select three items in addition to their regular food box. This supports neighbors to select the items that are most meaningful to them and has enabled FISH to introduce culturally preferred items in smaller quantities to see how they are received.

The drive-up neighbors are given an order sheet is in English, Spanish, and Ukrainian, and the volunteers then fulfill their order in the pantry. Items such as honey and oatmeal have been popular! During the holiday season, they also offered two options of special holiday kits: one of traditional American holiday side dishes, and another with ingredients for tamales. Each of the kits included a recipe sheet and came with a $25 grocery gift card for neighbors to purchase proteins for the meal. This is a great way to support neighbors to select which meal would bring the most familiarity and meaning over the holiday season.

If your organization wants to expand your efforts to address barriers to hunger relief access in your community, look for upcoming updates on Food Bank of the Rockies’ application for this year’s Inclusive Capacity Building Program.