This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Written by Andrew Zimmerman
Cultivate seeks to help seniors with a variety of local programs driven by community volunteers. The "Carry-Out Caravan" initiative, which began in 1983, focuses on the challenges of seniors getting their groceries. Cultivate volunteers assist seniors with the ordering, purchasing and delivering of groceries from their partner, King Soopers.
With their origins as a RSVP hub over 47 years ago, helping retirees with volunteer opportunities, then becoming "CareConnect" and then "Boulder County Care Connect," and now Cultivate as of 2018 - the mission has remained constant: "... help seniors flourish through active engagement with their community." And there are many ways to help with the Carry-out Caravan and other programs for seniors, all of which can be found on their website.
As per Shun-Luoi Fong, Director of Communications at Cultivate, the names changes were driven by the drive to ensure that the name captured the essence of the initiative - to see seniors flourish - to cultivate deeper connections with seniors and the community."
On their website, Cultivate, seniors can sign up to receive support and volunteers can sign up to be a part of the program, all on the Carry-Out Caravan website page.
For interested seniors, there is an Enrollment Packet that needs to be completed and submitted. For volunteers, there is an application and orientation process that needs to be completed. Guidance for the process for ordering of groceries is also on their site.
For Longmont members, grocery orders are taken on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and then the groceries are delivered on Tuesdays. While seniors must cover the cost of their groceries, the service is free, and the shopping is limited to King Soopers.
Currently the Carry-Out Caravan program is servicing 68 Longmont Seniors, with 55 volunteers involved in various roles including order takers, delivery drivers, shoppers, and baggers. There are many ways to volunteer and the team could use help.
Order takers work from either the Cultivate office located at 6325 Gunpark Drive, Boulder or from the Longmont Senior Center at 910 Longs Peak Ave, Longmont, where they field grocery orders from participating seniors on Monday's from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
On Tuesday mornings, volunteer shoppers fulfill the orders from Monday at a Longmont King Soopers. Grocery deliveries are made on Tuesdays. The hope is that volunteers and seniors get to know each other and become friends through the process.
For the previous year, 2018, the numbers for the Carry-out Caravan had over 4490 grocery orders received and fulfilled by 111 volunteers contributing 6,274 hours, while servicing 220 senior clients. Visit the Cultivate website and browse the various programs and volunteer opportunities.
