Helping Hands wins Building Bridges award

The Kids' Pasta Project prepares healthy, homemade meals and gives the profits to local organizations. The Kids' Pasta Project teaches kids new skills and empowers them to serve their local community.

On Martin Luther King Day, the Kids' Pasta Project held a special dinner for the third annual Building Bridges Award.

The award is a prize for an organization that strengthens our community, works to empower individuals to serve their community, and builds bridges between different people and groups in the community. First State Bank of Colorado generously contributed $250 for this award, which was matched with dinner profits for a total of $500 in prize money.

All of the kids that are involved in Kids' Pasta Project were invited to vote for the winner. Kids voted for three organizations that they thought deserved the award based on the award criteria.

Fifty people came to the Kids' Pasta Project Building Bridges Award night. Twelve local organizations were nominated for the award, and people involved in each of the organizations attended the event.

Siena Podgorny, an eighth grade KPP volunteer, said, "Everyone came, had fun and waited for the award to be announced. People were excited and having fun eating dinner. The Building Bridges night felt fun and new."

Helping Hands of the North Fork was the award winner. Jackie Parks, who nominated the organization, wrote that the Helping Hands Program "has taken an idea for holiday food baskets for needy kids and enlarged it to help more than 70 needy children in the North Fork every week. Some food is delivered from the Food Bank of the Rockies, some is donated and also money is donated to make this program work. A child does not have to qualify for this program so none are turned away. Bags of food are prepared by the volunteers each week and they are delivered to the elementary and middle schools in the valley. The schools then hand out these bags of food on Friday so the child can have 'kid friendly food' for the weekend."

All of the nominations for the Building Bridges Award can be read online at kidspastaproject.org.

The Hotchkiss K-8 School held a food drive to support Helping Hands for the holiday season. Siena Podgorny, a Hotchkiss K-8 student, said, "All of the kids in each grade at my school collected over 70 cans of food each week. I think that's good because kids are helping other kids and families that needed help during weekends and holidays got food. "

The Kids' Pasta Project serves dinners that benefit local organizations almost every Monday. The dinner schedule is available at kidspastaproject.org.

Make dinner reservations online at kppreservations @ gmail.com or call 970-985-9220.

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