“Helping people was one of the main reasons I became a REALTOR® and it is still the most satisfying part of my job,” said Robbins. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have a wife and family, a Foundation Board and an auction crew that all felt the same way.” Contact Robbins at matt@monarchrlty.com and learn more about the 1971 GHS Football Memorial Foundation here.
2020 FOOD PACKING BEGINS
BOB BELL Metro District Finalist Food For Thought Denver Nourishing Young Minds Denver REALTOR® Bob Bell brought a community together to fight weekend hunger
kids who need food,” said Bell, but “leading a ‘family’ of doers who will not take no for answer” has enabled the program – still 100% volunteer; the Board members cover administrative costs – to grow to serve students at 72 schools throughout Denver, Aurora, Adams County, and Westminster. With the help of hundreds of volunteers packing food weekly at several packing sites across town, delivery drivers in donated trucks bringing the meals to schools, and school staff distributing the Power Sacks, Food For Thought provided more than 1,500,000 meals to nearly 11,000 students in 2018-2019.
All schools have one thing in common: noise. On elementary school campuses, young, high-pitched voices giggle and shriek and yell. In middle and high schools, the murmur of conversation rises and falls, sometimes excited, sometimes indignant. Lockers slam, bells ring. But on Friday afternoons when the voices recede and the hallways empty, thousands of children in Denver go home to silent pangs of hunger.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Food For Thought never missed a beat, pivoting to provide meals for “grab and go” distribution sites at Denver schools.
REALTOR® Bob Bell is a north Denver native and still runs his business, Mile Hi Property, there. When he learned that many children in Denver often have nothing to eat all weekend after leaving school on Friday, he decided to act.
“Nothing gets in Bob’s way from achieving success,” said Craig Myles, REALTOR® and Food For Thought volunteer. “Rain, shine, pandemic, whatever, he is going to get that food delivered every Friday. We’ve never missed a Friday.”
“Just being educated about the compelling problem of childhood hunger in my backyard was all the inspiration it took,” he said.
All because of the hard work of Food For Thought volunteers, said Bell. “I have learned that people are good. When presented with a problem and given a way to solve that problem, the love and passion of people has no bounds.” He added, “My profession as a REALTOR® constantly exposes me to people at their most vulnerable moments and has groomed me to see a bigger picture in my local world.”
Bell founded Food For Thought in 2012 determined to help the students at two schools. In both schools, more than 90 percent of their students qualified for free and reduced-price lunch, a federal program that provides students whose families fall below certain income thresholds with free breakfast and lunch at school.
Thanks to Bell and his family of Food For Thought volunteers, the picture looks a lot better for thousands of children.
Staffed 100 percent by volunteers, Food For Thought delivered more than 32,000 meals that first year, in “Power Sacks” that help feed a family of four over the weekend. The program has grown exponentially every year since.
Contact Bell at milehiproperty@gmail.com and learn more about Food For Thought here.
“Time is a premium in life and there are more Denver BOB BELL continued on next page
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