For the past five years, Provecho Collective has partnered with advocates, policymakers, organizations, institutions, and other cross-sector partners to create a more resilient and equitable food system in Colorado. As a result, we’ve celebrated numerous policy wins.
Still, achieving food justice requires shifting power. So we’re continuing work to achieve a Colorado where everyone can exercise their power to choose what they eat, where it comes from, how it’s grown, and when it’s available. In 2026, we are advancing a bold and community-informed policy agenda that is rooted in our mission to build a sustainable and equitable food system by shifting power to communities that are most impacted by hunger and food insecurity.
Provecho Collective’s Community Justice Manager, Charlie Kestler, led a series of workshops and conversations with lived experience experts who serve on our Community Voice Committee, providing opportunities for their voices to shape our advocacy efforts around the food policies that affect their lives. Our 2026 policy agenda reflects this shared expertise through policy priorities that fall within three overarching issue areas:
- Food Sovereignty: Equitable access to healthy, affordable, and culturally affirming food is a basic human right, and Colorado communities should have the power to choose what they eat, where it comes from, how it’s grown, and when it’s available.
- Nutrition Program Access: Every Coloradan who is eligible for and wants to receive benefits should receive those benefits in a manner that is equitable, timely, and without shame or stigma.
- Support for All Coloradans: Access or disrupted access to food does not occur independently of other factors, and improving food systems involves addressing the intersectional policies that impact Coloradans. All Coloradans should have equitable access to housing, transportation, healthcare, and opportunities for economic mobility.
Through this agenda, Provecho Collective’s position remains clear: Food security is not a privilege. It is a basic human right.
Food Sovereignty
Supporting Community-Based, Culturally Responsive Food Systems and Strong Local Economies
Too many communities face systemic barriers to healthy, affordable, and culturally affirming food. Food access disparities persist in both rural and urban communities, particularly in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. Food justice means recognizing culture and community leadership as central to food policy. Moreover, equitable food access depends on strong and resilient local food systems.
Our priorities are to:
- Ensure public food procurement supports small, local, and diverse producers.
- Support independent and culturally relevant grocers and community markets in underserved areas.
- Strengthen connections between local producers and food access programs.
- Increase and sustain direct funding for food banks, food pantries, and culturally specific food programs.
- Protect the safety and rights of agricultural workers, including overtime pay in Colorado.
- Promote practices that mitigate food waste.
- Advance policies that allow communities to define and shape their own food solutions.
Nutrition Program Access
Advancing Inclusive, Stable, and Dignified Nutrition Assistance Programs
Nutrition assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA); and summer food programs are among the most effective tools we have to reduce hunger and promote access to nutritious foods. Nutrition assistance should be equitable and responsive, serving to expand opportunity, not create barriers for families and retailers to participate in and benefit from these programs. Through legislative, regulatory, and administrative advocacy,
Our priorities are to:
- Secure funding for program improvements that enhance access, administration, adequacy, and evaluation.
- Defend from program disinvestment.
- Oppose policies that increase stigma and create unnecessary administrative burdens for participants.
- Support culturally-relevant, community-tailored outreach, education, and resource development for program enrollment, utilization, and continuity.
- Advocate against policies and practices that weaken program integrity, impose harmful program restrictions, or unduly burden participants and local communities.
- Expand incentives that increase equity, choice, and access to healthy foods.
- Increase and protect access to food and nutrition programs for disproportionately impacted families and communities, including immigrant and mixed-status families, veterans, former foster youth, older adults, people with disabilities, and historically marginalized groups.
- Elevate community experiences and expertise in local, state, and federal decision-making processes.
Support for All Coloradans
Centering Equity and Communities’ Needs
Provecho Collective’s advocacy work is grounded in ensuring that policies honor the intersectional identities and experiences of community members who are most impacted by hunger and food insecurity. A just food system requires freedom from oppression at every level. Thus, we work to address the root causes of these issues and further, to ensure that all Coloradans have equitable access to housing, transportation, healthcare, and opportunities for economic mobility.
Our priorities are to:
- Advocate for policies and practices that protect and support Colorado’s most vulnerable communities.
- Oppose public charge expansions or policies that create fear or confusion.
- Promote policies that reduce household costs and increase economic stability.
- Support policies and frameworks that increase healthcare access and affordability as well as reinforce the nexus between nutrition access and health.
- Support policies that advance equitable access to safe, stable, and affordable housing.
- Strengthen transportation and infrastructure solutions that improve food access.
- Advance progressive tax reform in Colorado.
- Strengthen cross-sector collaboration and accountability and promote coordinated action.
- Expand leadership development and advocacy opportunities for community members.
How You Can Get Involved
Policy change is most effective when the communities closest to challenges are closest to decisionmaking.
In 2026, we will:
- Expand opportunities for community members to engage in policy advocacy.
- Provide advocacy office hours and technical assistance to community partners.
- Assist in organizing and mobilizing communities around shared policy priorities.
- Promote transparency, accessibility, and accountability throughout the policy-making process.
You can support Provecho Collective’s 2026 agenda by:
- Joining our Policy Committee.
- Joining our Community Voice Committee, if you are a directly impacted community member.
- Engaging with our policy tracker and signing up for action alerts.
- Sharing your story.
- Supporting our work through partnership and investment.
The challenges ahead are real, but so is our collective power! Together, we’ll advance this agenda with care, courage, and collaboration to transform systems so that hunger and inequity are no longer inevitable.
