Steamboat Pilot & Today

Oak Creek — Lift-Up's South Routt Food Bank in Oak Creek is off to a good start but is open to suggestions on how it can serve the community better.

"We are getting lots of donations and lots of clients," South Routt Food Bank staffer Lisa Bohlmann said.

Most recently, Soroco High School students held a contest to see which class could collect the most food for the food bank. The result was about 30 bags of groceries, equaling about $600 worth of food, donated to the nonprofit organization.

"It was a lot of stuff," Bohlmann said.

Donation bins at Select Super grocery store in Oak Creek also have produced an ample amount of food for the bank.

"The community has been very generous in donations," Bohlmann said.

As well as helping people with grocery needs, the food bank acts as a liaison for people to be connected to services offered by Lift-Up and other nonprofit groups in Steamboat Springs.

Recently, Bohlmann helped connect a south Routt family to a program that helps pay part of one month's rent.

Right now, the food bank and the Oak Creek Town Hall has free winter coats for anyone that needs one.

"We have tons, and we'll have them here for a while," Bohlmann said.

Though the food bank has been deemed a success so far, Lift-Up officials still want to find different ways it can better serve the community.

The Steamboat Springs Food Bank still receives visitors from south Routt, and Bohlmann would like to find a way that those people can make use of their local facility.

Some possibilities on improvements include changing the times the food bank is open so it can accommodate more people, she said.

Right now, the food bank is open from 9 a.m. until noon on Monday and Thursday.

If families qualify, which is based on income and other elements, they can visit the food bank three times in a six-month period. On those visits, the families can have three free bags of groceries, proportioned out into dry foods, personal products and meat.