The Montezuma County commissioners voiced reluctance Monday to giving the go-ahead to the county’s sponsoring a summer lunch program for local children.
Laurel Schafer, assistant director of the county’s public health department, told the board at their workshop that the program would involve working with the state Department of Education. It would also entail working with Good Sam’s Food Pantry, the local Good Food Collective, and the Reaching Our Community Kids, or ROCK, group in Dolores County.
The goal is to provide five days’ worth of lunches every week for up to 350 Montezuma County children and 75 in Dolores County that can be picked up at a central location, Schafer said. Local children up to 18 years old would be served.
The program requires a sponsor, a food vendor who makes the meals, and a distribution center, which would be Good Sam’s in Cortez, she said.
“Families would come and pick up meals for their children one day a week,” Schafer said.
“Public health is in a position to help bridge the gap as far as the sponsorship goes.”
The effort would not be connected to any school districts, according to Schafer. She said Mancos has a program of its own, while District Re-1 did a pilot program in 2024 but decided not to do it in 2025 because their longtime dining director was retiring.
She said she believes Re-1 is planning to do a program in 2026 but that would be a “congregate” program, meaning you eat the meal on site, and it would serve only children younger than ninth grade.
“Our program would be open to everyone in this area,” including Dolores, Towaoc, and Cortez, she said. It would last for nine weeks, through June and July.
Schafer said hasn’t been able to talk with anyone with Re-1.
The ROCK group, which is based in Dove Creek but not affiliated with Dolores County or that school district, would have people picking up meals for up to 75 children per week and distributing them in Dolores County.
As the sponsor, the health department would have some administrative and oversight duties.
Commission chair Jim Candelaria said he doesn’t disagree with feeding kids, but wonders whether the health department has the capacity to take this on.
“I’m really reluctant to start something new here,” Candelaria said. “I don’t disagree with feeding kids, but I’m struggling to find out if this is really public health.”
“I would say yes, food insecurity has always been part of public health,” Schafer said.
She reiterated that other groups would be involved. “But the other groups don’t have the capacity to do the financial piece,” she said.
Commissioner Kent Lindsay voiced concern over whether people might become dependent on the program and then suffer if it weren’t repeated next year.
“If we start this program and then next year it’s not there and those people are dependent on us to eat,” he said, noting that the state is critically short of funding now.
“I don’t want to start a program that they’re going to get dependent on that’s not going to be there next year,” Lindsay said.
Schafer said she understands the concerns.
“I get it, it’s a lot,” she said, adding that if the effort becomes too much of a problem, “I’ll be the first to say ‘this is too much, how can we transition it to someone else?’ That is ultimately the goal. But it hasn’t been done consistently enough for it to get established and someone to run the program.”
She said the county has to apply by April 15 to take part in this summer’s program.
The commissioners said they want to do some research and will take up the matter again next week.
