Montezuma County commissioners voted Tuesday to reject a grant proposal that would have provided weekly take-home meals to hundreds of children during the summer.
Commissioners cited concerns about cost, staffing capacity and whether operating a summer meal program falls within the county’s role.
“I am going to put this right back on the schools,” commissioner Jim Candelaria said. “I think the schools need to step up.”
The three-member board unanimously denied the proposal.
“We can’t continue to take on something that might not be successful,” Candelaria added.
The proposed program would have operated as a noncongregate meal system, allowing families to sign up to pick up a box containing five lunches once a week rather than traveling to a distribution site every day.
Commissioner Kent Lindsay said he contacted others during the week and learned that previous iterations of similar programs experienced significant inefficiencies. He said food waste reached 65% to 70% when mandatory daily meal quotas went uneaten and were discarded.
The proposal would have provided 2,125 meals to roughly 425 children, including about 350 in Montezuma County and 75 in Dolores County.
Lindsay also raised concerns about long-term financial stability.
“I look at this, and at our depleting revenues. If this grant were to fail, we could not absorb this into our revenue system. I can’t support this,” he said.
The proposal was discussed across multiple board meetings and drew public support during comment periods. It was also raised during a recent town hall in Mancos, where residents questioned why the county was not endorsing it.
During a March 30 commissioners workshop, Laurel Schafer, assistant director of the county Public Health Department, presented details of the program.
Public Health was approached by rural food access coordinators with the Montezuma County Good Food Collective. Schafer said the proposal aligned with the department’s role and priorities, noting that improving food access is listed as the No. 2 goal in the county’s Public Health Improvement Plan.
The department was asked to serve as the administrative sponsor for a program partnering with the Colorado Department of Education, vendors, local food banks and other contractors to distribute meals to children over a nine-week period in June and July.
“Food insecurity has always been part of public health,” Schafer said. “We are not doing this alone, its just other good food collective groups do not have the capacity for the financial pieces, as well as, the staff to do reimbursement.”
Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 plans to operate a separate summer meal program that requires children to eat meals on site and will serve students in eighth grade and below.
In contrast, the Public Health-sponsored program would have served all children up to age 18 throughout Cortez, Dolores, Towaoc and parts of Dolores County.
The operational structure would have included the county as the oversight administrator, along with vendors, distributors, local food kitchens and Reaching Our Community Kids, known as ROCK, based in Dove Creek.
During public comment, resident Mary Dodd urged the board to support the summer food grant. She said 60% of local children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and argued that Public Health’s sponsorship would help prevent food insecurity and related physical, mental and academic declines during the summer.
Commissioners also pointed to existing social services that provide support when school is out. Families enrolled in the SNAP program receive supplemental benefits in May to help feed children during the summer months.
“In our health plan, when we say food safety that means quality of food,” Lindsay said.
County Administrator Travis Anderson said he was unable to reach anyone at the school district.
“I think we should stay in our lane, this is a school district issue,” Candelaria said. “I would have liked to have a conversation with the school district, but we can’t get a hold of them.”
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