Aspen Elementary School to host food drive

Pitkin County has a higher rate of food scarcity than the state of Colorado — a problem the Aspen Elementary School will tackle with their inaugural Cereal Domino Challenge, beginning next week. 

The school hopes to get 1,000 cereal box donations between Monday and Nov. 20, which they will set up and tip over in a line of dominos, before donating the boxes to local food assistance organization LIFT-UP. The elementary school will collect cereal donations from those who are school-affiliated in the AES lobby. Members of the public who wish to donate cereal — or milk — to support the drive can do so at the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, 130 S. Galena St. in Aspen, or the Aspen Board of Realtors, 23400 Two Rivers Rd., Suite 44, Basalt. 

According to LIFT-UP Board Member Sarah Burggraf, the nonprofit provided food assistance to approximately 200,000 individuals from Aspen to Parachute last year. Given the high cost of living, she said Pitkin County food scarcity rates are 1.5% higher than the state, with 12.4% of Pitkin County children facing food scarcity, compared to 11.2% across Colorado.

“So, to put that in real terms, if you were looking at a school like Aspen Elementary, where they’ve got a class size of approximately 20 kids,” Burggraf said, “within that class, you’d be looking at two to three students who could possibly be facing food insecurity or experiencing hunger.”

She added that it’s common for Pitkin County residents who make above the minimum income level for food stamps — the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — to still struggle to put food on the table. 

“There’s a lot of people who just fall through the cracks of still needing assistance but not being able to qualify for that,” she said of the federal food aid.

Those who do rely on food stamps have been put under undue strain, after the federal government said last week they would pause food stamp funding in the wake of the government shutdown. Officials last week estimated 4,335 people between Pitkin and Garfield counties rely on SNAP benefits. 

In LIFT-UP’s first day of operations this week, Parachute’s LIFT-UP location saw 27 people in line waiting for the nonprofit to open. Fifty people attended the location throughout the day, and nine signed up for food assistance, an increase from the location’s typical one to two daily signups, according to Elyse Hottel, LIFT-UP’s interim executive director. Carbondale, too, saw 10 signups, while two to three per day has traditionally been the norm.

Though Aspen Elementary School’s Cereal Domino Challenge was planned multiple months ago, prior to the issues with SNAP funding, Aspen School District Tharyn Mulberry said the timing for a food drive is appropriate given the recent federal attempt to pause food aid.

“I think that the pause in the SNAP benefits has created a bigger need community wide,” Mulberry said. “So I think it’s appropriate timing for us to do this drive.”

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.