t all started because a little boy raised his hand to answer this question: What do you want to ask Santa for this year His answer, born of need free from stigma, was simple. Food. “We knew that we were working with kids and families who were struggling in many ways,” said Julia Simmons, president of Denver-based Amp the Cause. “But to have a child put the need so clearly and simply, you can’t look away from that.”
ReKaivery is on a mission to recover local food networks, starting with Larimer County. ReKaivery is creating carbon-neutral food hubs which will operate similarly to hyperlocal grocery stores within renovated, solar-powered shipping containers. These food hubs will make it easier for all community members to access, purchase and sell locally sourced food. ReKaivery is reducing barriers that exist within the local food space to ensure local food is accessible for all while supporting local suppliers by providing an equitable, convenient channel to sell to the local market. ReKaivery’s model is unique in that the products are sold on consignment. This means, the suppliers maintain autonomy over their pricing while ReKaivery manages and sells the products on behalf of the suppliers. ReKaivery’s food hubs will have a large community impact with a small environmental footprint.
He who holds the purse strings holds the power. It’s a well-worn adage, but no less accurate today than yesterday. Understanding this reality, the Archuleta County Food System|Food Equity Coalition centered their recent work – as so many in their community struggled with pandemic-related challenges – on breaking down one real financial barrier to a more equitable food system. The Coalition includes organizations, community food agencies and groups, growers and producers, and individual community members from across the rural county nestled in the San Juan National Forest.
For many nonprofits, fundraising is a necessity, but probably not a first love. For Mallory Garneau, the executive director of the FoCo Café, it has become the only bridge back to normal operations for the six-year-old restaurant.
If you’ve come to believe that necessity is the mother of invention, you might want to meet Emma Kottenstette.
She and her husband Matthew founded Farm Runners in 2015. The business provides food distribution services connecting local farmers and their products to businesses who need them in the North Fork Valley and surrounding areas. They also have their own grocery store in Hotchkiss.
The story of the Food Bank of the Kiowa Creek Community Church might be less a story of innovation in one thing, and more a story of innovation in all things. The historically small food bank has served the eastern half of rural Elbert County for more than 20 years. Shortly before COVID lockdowns hit, the church community had made the decision to revitalize and significantly expand the food access effort by making it a more central part of their own service mission. They couldn’t have known what they were in for.
It was an all-hands-on deck moment in Leadville. Shortly after the March COVID shutdown, the St. George’s mobile food pantry ran out of food. The small pantry the church maintained also ran out. And the other two food pantries in the area open only one day a month were not equipped for daily operation and were shut down. For the first time, families were turned away.
It was a tough moment for a church that had provided community meals five days a week to all comers for nearly 40 years.
In the blink of an eye, Anna Scardina’s title at Benefits in Action went from SNAP enrollment specialist to food delivery and resource coordinator. And in that same eye blink, her organization – traditionally a service connector — became a direct service provider.
Lyndsey Williams is no stranger to challenge. As the Food Bank Network Director for La Puente’s Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley, she oversees 15 pantries that serve more than 10,000 people spread out over six counties on a landmass roughly the size of Massachusetts.
If you are looking for CommunityWorks in Aurora or Colorado Springs, you should first look for a barbershop.
The non-profit found early on that the men and women who use their help to learn new work skills and receive certifications that could help them find steady employment weren’t interested in going to places that looked like workforce centers. They were looking for normalcy.
