Author: barefoot-mayte

At the Family & Intercultural Resource Center of Summit County, the motto is “promoting stable families and strong communities since 1994.” While promoting stable families remains the long-serving organization’s focus, much additional attention is being paid to the experience of those families who use the food resources available there. The intentional shifts to enhance user experience, as well as the intersectional nature of each consumer’s life has resulted in some big changes in stigma reduction, education and improved environments for the organization.

No one expects to need to rebuild their lives. Still, thousands of adults and families find themselves in need of doing just that. And for 36 years, a safe harbor in that particular storm has been the Gathering Place. This refuge for rebuilding lives provides shelter, basic necessities and supportive programs to women, trans folx and children who are experiencing poverty and homelessness.

Village Exchange Center’s food access program serves Aurora and Metro Denver’s immigrants, refugees, and communities experiencing food insecurity. Through strategic partnerships, the food pantry meets community needs for fresh produce, meals, toiletries, and diapers weekly.

The Sister Carmen Community Center is not an emergency response organization. The 44-year-old non-religious nonprofit found itself in the middle of need for one of Colorado’s most destructive fires, the Marshall Fire, that swept through Boulder County destroying thousands of structures, most of them homes. People in the community who had used the community center before for the various food, rent and other assistance provided were the first to trickle in. But they were quickly followed by hundreds of others who suddenly found hotels full, rent prices skyrocketing and a need to simply talk their way through the shock of losing everything in a matter of minutes.

Rising Up understands how food coincides with not only nutrition but how cultural identity has become equally important. As a partner agency of FBR, deliveries have increased to include foods that are commonly consumed by the different cultural and ethnic groups represented in Morgan County. However, it must be noted certain communities, for example east African do not want canned items. While the food item may be a traditional food, it is rejected because the packaging, in this case a can, diminishes its quality.

Founded in 2013 and formerly known as the Colorado Springs Food Rescue, the group’s flagship program designed to reduce food waste while increasing food access, quickly evolved into “organism with a mission” — multi-faceted programming working together to cultivate a healthy, equitable food system in the greater Colorado Springs community.

MYPI is working with all three refugee resettlement agencies in Colorado to provide culturally appropriate aid to Afghan refugee families who will resettle in Colorado, with a current approximation of 3,000 Afghan refugees.

Colorado regularly makes Top 10 lists for food insecurity among older adults. At the same time, enrollment in the Colorado Supplemental Food Program, which specifically serves people 60 and older, has seen declining enrollments for years, well before pandemic shutdowns caused additional hardships.