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Volume 16, Number 41 | November 28-December 4, 2024
LIFT-UP launches fundraiser amid growing community needs JEANNE SOULDERN Sopris Sun Correspondent
LIFT-UP, a nonprofit providing food assistance from Aspen to Parachute, has launched its annual year-end fundraising campaign: “Donate to the Plate.” Executive Director Ivan Jackson explained the importance of this initiative in a recent interview with The Sopris Sun. According to data from Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, one in seven children experiences hunger, underscoring the critical importance of local food assistance programs and their fundraising campaigns. “This is our biggest fundraising campaign of the
year,” Jackson said. “Last year, we raised $370,000, and we’re hoping to exceed that this year.”
Growing demand The need for LIFT-UP’s services has grown exponentially. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they saw a 600% increase in food insecurity across the Roaring Fork Valley. At the end of 2022, the organization served approximately 55,000 individuals. That number skyrocketed to 128,000 last year and has reached 155,000 as of the end of October this year. “Living in this Valley is expensive, from housing to groceries,” Jackson noted. “And continued on page 7
Graham Ward, operations director at Lift-Up, helps direct traffic with help from warehouse associate Hannah Snaza (right) at the Carbondale Town hall parking lot, where over 200 turkeys were given away on Nov. 21. Photo by Klaus Kocher