Loveland's Community Kitchen will be moving its breakfast services to the Loveland Resource Center in an effort to consolidate services for those experiencing homelessness in the city.
The kitchen announced the change in a press release Sept. 20, stating at the time that Friday would be the last day that in-house breakfast would be served at the building along Garfield Avenue.
Neil Jorgensen, Community Kitchen board president, said the decision to move came from a multitude of reasons, including both the consolidation of services and to further strengthen the collaborative ties between the Kitchen and the Loveland Resource Center.
The consolidation will also address an increase in clients, which have tripled for breakfast since the resource center opened, Jorgensen added.
"Those experiencing homelessness don't necessarily have a means to travel or the ability to get around," he said. "If we can provide those services in one place that is going to be better for them in the long run."
Friday morning, following the final breakfast service, volunteers stood around a center table in the kitchen, packing the bagged breakfasts that will be served at the LRC starting Monday.
Each bag will include a bagel, oatmeal, a peanut butter cup, two packs of jelly, a juice box, two hard-boiled eggs and an 8-ounce milk carton, along with cutlery, a bowl, a napkin and handwipes.
Ashlin Lorenzo, program supervisor for the Community Kitchen, said that while the bags themselves are very similar to what they would normally serve for breakfast with only small changes, the biggest challenge has been the logistics of making sure they have all they need at the right time and the space to store it. She described "playing fridge Tetris" recently to fit everything. This, she said, is a similar problem the LRC has.
"Like us, they have a challenge with space," she said.
The release added, though, that the Loveland City Council agreed in a meeting two weeks ago that the LRC — due to its size, layout and location — is not adequate to meet the community's needs and that councilors directed city staff to begin searching for new locations and potential partners to operate services at a new site.
Sandra Wright, former director of the Community Kitchen and current homeless systems project manager for Homeward Alliance, said that because the city does not currently have a sustainable solution to provide the amount of resources Loveland needs, this plan helps to alleviate some level of stress.
"Anything we can do in the meantime to make sure needs are continuing to be met with the resources we currently have available is appropriate," she said.
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