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A new nonprofit has taken over the Sunny Side Market on Pueblo’s East Side, where up to 210 residents in need can get free food every Thursday.
Care and Share opened the food bank in 2021, three years after the East Side Safeway closed its doors and residents faced food insecurity. Care and Share recently turned over leadership of the store at 1230 E. Eighth St. to By Grace Community Center of Fountain.
Pueblo-based Coordinator Jeff Casias said the local nonprofit formed in October to oversee the food bank. He runs it with the help of his wife Marina Casias, mother Helen Casias, and cousin Sandra Padilla.
“It looks just like a grocery store. We stock fresh produce, frozen foods, meat, cheese, desserts and non-perishables like cereals, spaghetti sauce, macaroni and cheese, pasta and peanut butter,” Jeff Casias explained.
The food bank also offers bread, canned goods, flour, coffee and occasionally sugar.
How the food bank works
The food bank is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday. First-time clients can drop in without an appointment.
Repeat clients are required to sign up for reservations which open online at 8 a.m. each Friday at sunnysidemarket.org. Appointments are offered in 10-minute intervals and the 200 slots usually fill up within 30 minutes of the 8 a.m. Friday registration start time, Jeff Casias said.
“You need to be fast,” he advised.
When clients arrive with two reusable shopping bags, they can grab a cart and have 10 minutes to fill up the bags with groceries. On Thursday, March 6, the market will host a 9:30 a.m. grand opening and ribbon cutting.
In honor of the grand opening, the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region will offer gifts for participants with pets and the Habitat for Humanity of Pueblo ReStore has donated disinfectant cleaner to be given away.
How to help
Like any nonprofit, volunteers and donations can help “any time and all the time,” Jeff Casias said.
“Care and Share still gives us some food, plus we are able to order stuff as a nonprofit, so we order whatever we can afford,” Jeff Casias said. “We just became members of the chamber and we need sponsors so we can offer more food.”
“We want to open one day a week within the next couple of months and that day would be reserved for the homeless people,” Jeff Casias said.
He also hopes to be able to add pet food items to the store.
Monetary donations can be made online at bygracecc.com/give plus checks can be mailed to Rev. Rick Fantana at 737 Dale St., Fountain, Colorado, 80817.
Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or via X at x.com/tracywumps. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
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