The town of Carbondale recently announced a new dinner service that will provide meals to Venezuelan migrants taking refuge in some of the town’s shelters and in nearby parts of the county. 

The service, which began Monday, provides dinners to the migrants at no cost from 6-7 p.m. Monday through Friday at Crystal River Elementary School. 

“The folks who are participating in the meals are very respectful, very grateful,” said Octavio Maese, Roaring Fork School District director of food and nutrition services. “I think overall it’s been very well received, as far as what we’re offering for a menu and the space that we’re able to provide.” 

The dinner service announcement comes shortly after the town of Carbondale confirmed two new shelter locations for the migrants at Town Hall and Carbondale Community United Methodist Church, both of which are being managed by Recovery Resources. The temporary shelter at Carbondale’s Third Street Center, which had been housing roughly 60 migrants since November, will be closing on Jan. 19.

Both the food and service staff are being provided by RFSD through funding from Carbondale’s emergency grant of $223,880, which was awarded to the town in December by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. 

Carbondale Town Manager Lauren Gister said the town allocated nearly $50,000 of the grant to the district to pay for the dinner service, which is currently contracted to extend from Jan. 8 through March 22. 

Rob Stein, who has been helping the town of Carbondale find housing and resources for the group of over 100 migrants since November, was the first to approach the school district with the proposal of getting involved with the town’s efforts. 

“As former superintendent, he’s very familiar with how the schools work,” Gister said. “He talked to the school district and they came back with a proposal, and we negotiated an agreement for Monday through Friday dinners.” 

So far during its first week, the service has provided an average of 40 meals a night, according to Maese. He said he sees people arrive at different intervals throughout the night, some walking, some on their bikes and some carpooling in groups. 

The people serving the meals each night are RFSD employees from different schools, who are also being paid through the emergency grant. 

Though the dinner service will only last for about three months, Gister said any plans to provide meal services beyond that period are yet to be determined. 

“What they do after April 1 and what kind of guidance I get from them, it still remains to be determined,” Gister said. “We will obviously be having those kinds of conversations over the next few weeks to figure out whether there (will be) additional services.” 

Additionally, Gister said the town plans to meet with other jurisdictions at the elected official level to discuss a more regional approach to dealing with the migrant newcomers arriving in the county. 

“That larger situation, it doesn’t just end on April 1,” Gister said. “Carbondale really has made every effort to do what we have capacity for, but we just don’t have the systems in place to deal with this on the municipal level for long-term. It has to be more of a regional conversation.”