This past week we took our partnerships to the next level to serve meals and produce to seniors, families and other community members who need encouragement through this tough crisis. Through these tough times we are so thankful for how our community has stepped up to support Mutual Meals! Just in case you missed it, 9News featured the story of Mutual Meals last week. You can view the story here.

Providence at 5280 Owner Cody Ford being interviewed for the 9News story on Mutual Meals.

Mutual Meals Dinner Meal Deliveries

Even though we had to cancel Thursday night deliveries because of the snow, we were still able to deliver 181 individual meals to seniors, frontline workers (healthcare, grocery and first responders) last week. Thanks to the generous donations of community members (over $11,000 in the last month), we were able to pay for these meals and send over $1,000 to Edgewater Inn and Providence at 5280. With federal funding still not reaching our Edgewater small businesses, this cash flow is so important to these two restaurants.

Produce bags ready for delivery

Mutual Meals Produce Deliveries

Thanks to produce from Jeffco Eats and Food Bank of the Rockies, we were able to deliver 29 produce bags to seniors, families and community members in the 80214 area on Saturday afternoon. School staff from Jefferson have been helping us deliver Grub Club boxes of food from the Action Center to students who need extra support. We are also thankful to Highlands United Methodist Church for allowing us to use the Edgewater United Methodist Church space at 25th and Fenton to store and organize the produce for delivery.

Special thanks to all our volunteer delivery drivers and community donors who are playing an important role in encouraging community members through Mutual Meals!

The 25th Avenue Community Garden at 25th and Fenton will be used to grow produce for Mutual Meals.

Planning for the Future

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, we knew that we wanted to use the Jefferson Community Garden as a “victory garden” to grow produce for Mutual Meals. Thanks to the generosity of the owner of the property at 5700 W. 25th Avenue, we are able to use the garden on the property to grow more produce for this growing season. The beauty of the 25th Avenue Community Garden is that it is right across the street from the Edgewater Methodist Church where we are storing and organizing produce for delivery on Saturdays. We are excited to see what will grow out of these partnerships!

You can read more about the gardens here.

Thanks to a grant to support this work, we were also able to bring back Executive Director Joel Newton into a part-time role to expand the Mutual Meals programming. Our goal is to learn from Mutual Meals, listen to community members and think strategically about what these programs could look like through the summer and into the fall. We are also in conversations with teachers and school staff at our local schools to see how we can best support them and their students over the next few months and into the next school year.

TOGETHER the Edgewater community can rebound from this pandemic, but it is going to take collective effort over the next few months to support thriving neighborhoods, schools and businesses.