Dear Editor,

I’m writing on my behalf and for the Board of the Nederland Food Pantry to  express our profound gratitude for the incredible generosity of our “quiet hero,” Christian Vanek, who enabled the creation of a brand new campus for the Nederland Food Pantry, Community Gardens & Clothing Closet at 196 W 1st Street in downtown Nederland, near the RTD lot.

  We have been operating out of the west wing of the Ned Community Center since 2013 and two community churches before that, all the way back to our founding in 1986. NFP has supported thousands in our community, especially the 1 in 5 of us who experience food security in any given year. Nederland was generous in providing us the space. But over time, the fire department has encouraged us to work harder to find a new home to make room for a rebuild of the west wing.

  The generosity and quiet community spirit of Christian Vanek made this dream into a reality, faster than any of us could have dreamed.

  Our 3-building campus was built, kitted and transported in flat-packs to our site beside the river by Studio Shed of Louisville, Colorado, to speed up construction to fit Nederland’s short building season. An added benefit is we will get a good test of how this type of construction weathers the years up here. The Planning Commission will keep on eye on this.  Building 1 is our Food Pantry, which has been blessed the past few months with a cornucopia of fresh food that we grew and harvested ourselves. Building 2 is our community services center, to take care of other needs, including housing and transportation. Building 3 is our Clothing Closet.

  Who uses our services? We serve around 500 clients per month, and 1350 households per year, across Boulder and Gilpin counties. The need for our services is accelerating in a softening job market, with 66 new clients in August and September.

  What is the impact? Here’s one recent example… a local single mom, even as she was facing homelessness, reached out for help with food, clothing, and other essential support. With focused assistance, she was able to find stable housing and land a steady job. This helped her create a better future for herself and her child. Our services leverage the strength and determination of people in our community. When we show up for each other and help those in need, we can make some really positive changes happen that support all of us. We use our resources with great care, earning a 97% score (4 star rating) from Charity Navigator (more on that later).

  Christian Vanek helps our community in other ways you may not know about. As publisher of The Mountain-Ear, Christian helped evolve our paper to recently win 18 Colorado Press Association awards, including “Excellence in Mixed Media,” General Excellence for having more awards than any other publication in its class, and (rightfully) Christian was awarded the Innovation Award for his continued belief and support of community journalism.

  As a business entrepreneur, Christian understands the necessity for our businesses to thrive to provide services we need and sales taxes to pay our bills.

Nederland’s sales tax revenues are down 5% year-to-date from last year. If uncorrected, our town services will have to scale back. Christian is retrofitting our old bank building to house new businesses we’re going to enjoy having and to help plug the sales tax shortfall.

Nederland can have “nice things,” from families in need of essential support to those of us who dine out often.

Thank you Christian Vanek for all you do to make Nederland a great place to live, for all of us! Your contributions are deeply appreciated – bravo!

Tom Mahowald

Nederland resident and NFP Chair