Community Ministry of Southwest Denver

Background Statement

The seeds for what has become Community Ministry were planted in 1966 when women from Brentwood United Methodist Church attended a conference on Affluence and Poverty. The conference disclosed that one of the poverty pockets in Denver at that time was in Southwest Denver in the College View neighborhood. This continues to be the reality for Southwest Denver families today. Two sisters from Loretta Heights College and four students rented a house and began to address issues of poverty and hunger. As a result College View Ministry was incorporated in 1968 and in September 1971 the name was changed to Community Ministry to better reflect that the ministry was a service organization working together with individuals and churches in the community.

For over 50 years, Community Ministry has served Southwest Denver families with a range of emergency programs: a food pantry, a clothing bank for children, holiday programs to support families during Thanksgiving and Christmas, school supplies, utility assistance and most recently our collaborative effort with other agencies to expand on other needed services on site. Community Ministry was founded with the recognition that families facing multiple challenges can be supported with emergency food, clothing and local community support and return to self sufficiency. Initially, Community Ministry served a handful of families; today, the organization serves over 46,000 individuals with food and other collaborative services. 90% of the food inventory is donated from our church and community partners. In 1968, eight churches sponsored Community Ministry; today, 30 churches support the organization with in- kind and financial donations as well as volunteers. In 2002, operations were consolidated into one central location at 1755 South Zuni. In 2020, Community Ministry purchased the building we had leased since 2002 to further establish our footprint in the community.

Community Ministry continues to administer a yearly Client Satisfaction Survey. This survey helps us provide direction for our daily operation and collaborations that we need to develop to meet the needs of our community.

Collaboration has always been a creative way to manage all programming and ensure comprehensive services are available to families. We are fortunate to be located in a space that permits both our direct services and those we have established through collaborative relationships with agencies that have expertise in areas that serve many of a family's additional needs. We have continue to have available free medical referrals, dental exams, and computer tablets. We have connected with Mi Casa who is offering to our families', access to their Legal Night where lawyers are available to answer questions. Mi Casa and Denver Public Schools also provide job assistance and training for individuals we refer. Both these areas were requested by families in our Customer Satisfaction Survey. Families have frequently commented to volunteers in the food pantry of their inability to feed their pets and often wondered why we didn't have pet food available. In response we have been able to collaborate with the Colorado Pet Pantry. They provide for families while at the food pantry needed pet food. Our successful collaboration efforts can also be seen in our growing number of food donors that have embraced our efforts to offer nutritious foods. For Community Ministry's this has been a particularly successful period for our goal of always having fresh produce available for every family that arrives at the Food Pantry.

A key collaboration is with The Food Exchange Resource Network (FERN). This collaboration of Food pantry's offers a great opportunity to help support our ability to always offer nutritious food items as well as collaborate with other partner food pantries to expand services for families. FERN has successfully added several new members that bring both a wealth of experience and creative ideas.