Since 1892, Denver Rescue Mission (DRM) has been meeting the needs of the poor and homeless through emergency services, rehabilitation, transitional programs, permanent housing assistance and community outreach. Annually, DRM serves more than 9,000 unique individuals across all services and programs.
Each year, DRM serves nearly 1 million meals to those in need. In addition, DRM provides community members with access to a food pantry where they can acquire essentials for themselves and their families.
DRM is committed to providing well-rounded, nutritious food to the community. In their food pantry, DRM has struggled to provide healthy produce and perishable items because they lacked access to refrigeration where items like fresh produce could be kept. Many times, they would receive donations of perishable items to the food pantry, but they would go to waste because there was no place to store them without access to refrigeration.
The American Heart Association knows that making fresh, nutritious food more accessible is critical to cardiovascular health. That is why the local Denver American Heart Association community impact team worked with DRM to get a refrigerator installed in the food pantry area. This means that DRM now has a place to properly store perishable items, and members of the community can come and grab heart healthy, nutritious food.
The Denver American Heart Association community impact team also worked to provide DRM with resources that covered heart healthy grocery guidelines and tips for shopping on a budget. These resources will be included in DRM’s Housewarming Boxes that are gifted to families and individuals that are moving from transitional to public housing.
Through the addition of the refrigerator to the food pantry, and distribution of the heart healthy resources, community members will have access to new tools that will help them live healthy, full lives.