This story was originally published by the Colorado Sun.
AURORA | The line stretches from the top of the church steps, down the sidewalk and to the end of the block, dozens of people with empty backpacks, grocery bags and even a tarnished red wagon.
Inside the Village Exchange Center, they will fill the empty bags and wagon with gallons of milk, sacks of lettuce and corn, loaves of bread and bags of pasta.
The Wednesday food pantry has been a reliable mainstay at the church that became a community center eight years ago, a place where immigrants representing 42 nations in the heart of ethnically diverse Aurora can count on healthy staples to feed their families. The center feeds 4,000 people each week, in addition to providing vaccines in the basement and worship space for religious services ranging from Nepali-Bhutanese Christian to Congolese Christian to Islam.
But the whole operation is in jeopardy.
In the past few weeks, Village Exchange Center has learned that it stands to lose up to $5.4 million in federal grants. A stop-work order issued by the Trump administration to the state public health department resulted in a week-long shutdown of the center’s vaccination program.
On top of all that, someone lit a fire in the alley behind the center, leading to a night-time scare that the center might catch fire and a lingering fear that the community center is a target for anti-immigrant fury.
“When you don’t provide food or basic services to people, how is that going to affect everyone else in the neighborhood?” asked Amanda Blaurock, CEO and cofounder of Village Exchange Center. “If you were a person that had children and had no way of getting a job, contributing or going to a food pantry and getting food, what would you do?”
On a busy Wednesday, center staff are helping people sign up for WIC, the federal food assistance program for women, infants and children. In the basement, the Colorado Alliance for Health, Equity and Practice is giving COVID shots. Gallons of milk and packages of yogurt are stacked along the food pantry line inside the center, and in an old gym, rows and rows of plastic sacks filled with groceries stretch across the floor.
Somehow, I can’t define in my mind, “the heart of ethnic Aurora”. Is it North Aurora, all Aurora, central Aurora? It’s in the headline but confusing.
This is only the beginning of the loss of Federal “free” money. It’s only going to get worse for those NGO’s who are getting Federal Funds. All the Anti Trumpers, and our Fed elected officials in Colorado will see how vengeful, right or wrong, the Donald will be.