For more than fifteen years, volunteers from Estes Park have traveled to the southwest corner of our state to work at La Puente, the safety net of the San Louis Valley. This multifaceted endeavor provides a broad range of critically important services:
- Emergency and transitional housing, a homeless shelter, and homless prevention programs
- Housing program for families
- Thrift store
- Community outreach and self-sufficiency programs
- Coffee shop
- Community garden
- Child care center
- Crisis center
- Job training for the homeless and other community members in crisis
- Thirteen food pantries
One of the most far reaching activities is its network of thirteen food pantries throughout the San Louis Valley. One paid staffperson with more than 50 volunteers makes this program function. In 2015, 25 percent of the population of the San Louis Valley utilized the food banks. The figures had grown by January 2016 to 1941 individuals using the Alamosa food bank alone; 36 percent were children.
Our workgroups have touched every building and activity of La Puente in one way or another, but our special bond supporting the food bank by sharing food from Crossroads and Community Café reaches the very basic necessity.
Shepherd of the Mountains takes part in two service trips each year to La Puente in Alamosa, Colorado. The next trip to La Puente will be June 2-5, 2016. Call the church for details if you would like to participate.