Word of Thanks: Logan County's Food Pantry

Cooperating Ministry, a non-profit founded in 1981 by the Sterling Ministerial Alliance, is committed to serving thousands of Logan County residents and we are passionate about what we do. The goal of CMLC is quite simple; “serve those in need and give a hand up not a hand out.”

CMLC's four food programs are central to our mission.

Food Pantry: A full scale local food pantry site offering access to food daily, Monday thru Friday. Four times a year, a family is able to receive enough food for an entire month.

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP): Is open to the public the 1st Tuesday of each month 10:00am to 3:00pm at CMLC. It is based on income guidelines and requires participants to be Logan County residents.

The Mobile Food Bank: Is open to the public the 4th Tuesday of each month 9:00am to 11:00am  at the Logan County Fair Grounds (1120 Pawnee Avenue, Sterling CO, 80751) and is based on participants declaration of need.

Christmas Basket Program: Phone lines are open for two weeks in November for participants to call and order a basket. Baskets assembled the second week in December and delivered to participants homes by community volunteers.

The bulk of patrons that walk through the doors at CMLC are between the ages of 19 and 64 and make up over 65% of the clients we serve. Approximately 16% of the patrons we serve are over the age of 65. Of these households, 84% live within the city of Sterling; the remaining 16% live in the other ten surrounding towns of Logan County. Nearly 1,600 households in the City of Sterling will utilize the food pantry and over 55% of these households will have children in them. CMLC will continue to advocate for families struggling through a crisis, job loss; those that are disadvantaged, marginalized, homeless, elderly, mentally ill, indigent, etc…

CMLC's food pantry has one large capacity walk-in cooler and one large capacity walk-in freezer, 7 chest freezers, 6 up-right freezers, and 2 up-right coolers.   On average, CMLC purchases $6,000 of food monthly and recently purchased ground beef, pork chops, ground pork, bratwursts, Italian sausage, and breakfast sausage valued at $15,000.  Recent board conversations have been centered around the topic of a back-up generator, to protect these valuable products in the event of a power outage and maintain our integrity to continue to supply services to Logan County residents in need. CMLC cannot afford to be the crisis, in a crisis. The recent bid for CMLC’s generator project is approximately $100,000.