My name is Faith Partain, and I am a student at Colorado Mountain College. I recently earned my associate’s degree in psychology, and am currently working on completing my bachelor’s degree in human services. This semester, I am taking leadership, ethics, and social responsibility, and our class was challenged to engage in a community engagement service project. I was privileged to spend a day volunteering at the Family & Intercultural Resource Center’s food market in Dillon, and the experience was rewarding to say the least.

The amount of people that the market was able to serve throughout the day was both impressive and jarring. Our community has a major disparity when it comes to food equity, and the food market is doing its very best to help address it. I was at the food market from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and I did not stop moving the entire time. Whether it was fulfilling food orders for families and individuals in need or restocking the already low shelves with what food they had in stock, there was always something to do.

The volunteers that were present on the day I worked had such a positive energy about them, regardless of the tiring work, that it was infectious. We played music and danced around and made fun out of the work. As a person who has experienced food insecurity multiple times throughout life, this is a place where I would have felt welcomed and taken care of by my community — which can make all the difference.

I am proud of Summit County and the efforts we make to take care of the people who are experiencing hard times, but I also challenge each member to do their part in helping these organizations who are working so hard to make food equity in Summit County a reality.