Direct Services
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Each year, Metro CareRing services, including food, personal care items and utilities assistance, will benefit over 68,000 people and 14,000 households.
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Every month, more than 1,100 households will receive nutritionally-balanced food from MCR’s and ANSAR pantry locations, with food packages sized according to family size.
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Over 2,000 pounds of food and toiletries are needed each day to serve 60-90 households.
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One staff member manages the pantry and oversees six to eight volunteers a day to keep the shelves stocked, accept deliveries of perishable and non-perishable food, and fulfill requests from individuals and families.
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Relationships are also built and maintained with grocery stores and food vendors. Several food drives are also coordinated annually among local faith communities.
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In addition to supplying its central Denver pantry at 18th and Downing, MCR also supplies Ansar Pantry in Aurora with food and toiletries www.ansarpantry.org.
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Metro CareRing also works with MILA (Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism) to operate a satellite location in Aurora, ANSA Pantry. The services available at ANSAR are RTD Tokens, Food, Toiletries and TEFAP for Arapahoe and Adams County residents on Saturdays. For more information about MILA, please go to www.milacolorado.org
| The food pantry provides hundreds of families with personal care items such as laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, feminine hygiene products and toothbrushes. Approximately 2,000 different households are assisted with school enrichment resources, diapers, infant formula, baby food and books. Families enroll in or receive help from partner agencies who provide early education, nutrition programs, family healthcare. |
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The major services Metro CareRing provides are:
Work Related Items: Funds are available on an once-in-a-lifetime basis for work boots and tool for individuals who need them for employment.
Transportation:Bus tokens are provided to individuals who need to return home after packing up their food. They are also provided for employment purposes, medical and social service appointments.
Utilities Assistance:Individuals and families can receive financial assistance in paying their utility bills. Metro CareRing, as the largest recipient of Energy Outreach Colorado utilities funds, provides monetary assistance with heating bills or refers clients to other sources of energy assistance funds.
ID Documentation: In partnership with Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Colorado Legal Services, and the Denver Department of Human Services, Metro CareRing provides individuals with assistance to secure out-of-state identification documents. Metro CareRing also houses the shared staff person who work exclusively on identification documentation issues. Funding is provided to individuals to obtain Colorado birth certificates, ids, driver's licenses. Metro CareRing also provides funding for Colorado Bureau of Investigation background checks for housing.
Emergency Shelter Vouchers: Aurora Warms the Night is a program of Metro CareRing that provides cold weather emergency hotel vouchers an assistance to homeless persons, whom might otherwise have to sleep on the streets. The program provides motel vouchers for homeless persons when the temperature reaches 25 degrees with precipitation or 20 degrees without precipitation. Vouchers are provided on a first-come, first-served basis and provide shelter to homeless persons when the limited Aurora shelter facilities are full. Last season, Aurora Warms the Night served 838 homeless persons, issuing 533 motel vouchers.
Promoting Self Sufficiency
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Metro CareRing is not satisfied to simply distribute food and services knowing that the same family will remain in crisis and be again in need next week or next month. All families receiving emergency services initially meet with staff or trained volunteer Personal Care Providers to identify the root causes that led them to come to Metro CareRing that day and how they can connect to long-term solutions that will address their barriers to self-sufficiency.
Annually, Metro CareRing provides more than 4,000 referrals for mental health services, healthcare, affordable housing, child care, job training/placement, budget counseling, and other services. Relationships with other nonprofit and faith communities helps facilitate quick linkages to other essential services.
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Services