Dear Hunger Relief Partners,
As many of you are well aware Denver has seen a sudden increase in the individuals and families traveling into or through Colorado from the southern U.S. border. We know many of you have been welcoming and responding to the needs of these newly arrived neighbors for several months and as the needs potentially increase over the weeks to come, we would like to better understand how we can best support your work as your partner.
Jaclyn Kurle, Emergency Manager from the Colorado Department of Human Services is coordinating the hunger-relief services at the intake center and shelter currently. The State is coordinating partners to provide breakfast and lunch meals via jaclyn.kurle@state.co.us
The City of Denver is coordinating lunch meals and has requested organizations wishing to collaborate contact them via MCDOC_PIO@denvergov.org. Daily updates are provided at https://denvergov.org/Community/Assistance-Programs/Migrant-Support
On Tuesday of last week, Food Bank of the Rockies pivoted operations to provide shelf-stable and fresh foods to the intake center and shelter. Through our conversations with the coordinating organizations, we have been able to compile emergency relief bags with beverages, snacks, ‘Find Food’ resource cards, and hygiene products to bridge the gap between meals as folks arrive and additionally, as they may be departing from Denver to their final destination. These bags are being distributed at the intake center and shelter.
We would like to hear from you regarding the services and hunger-relief support your organizations are offering and anticipate needing to offer, as some of the newly arrived neighbors settle into the Denver Metro area and access your organizations for support. We are aware that due to the ongoing challenges of inflation and reduced public benefits, your communities and organizational budgets are already stretched, and we want to work in partnership with you to meet the needs of all of our neighbors.
Thank you,
Cindy Mitchell
Vice President of Programs
Important Dates
- June 6 – Orientation at 10:00 a.m.
- June 10 – Open for Saturday pickups from 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
- June 22 – Orientation at 10:00 a.m.
- June 30 – Food Bank of the Rockies closing early — pickups and Fresh Food Center open until 11:00 a.m.
To sign up for Orientation or if you have questions about any of the dates above, contact partnersupport@foodbankrockies.org
Click here for our full, detailed calendars.
We Heard You!
Redirecting Truckload Donation Offers
We have heard from many of our partners that occasionally receive truckload donation offers that they simply lack the capacity to accept. If this applies to you, feel free to direct those offers to Food Bank of the Rockies by emailing partnersupport@foodbankrockies.org. Please include the donor’s contact information, product, and amount. Sourcing will immediately follow up with the donor, trucking company, and/or vendor to arrange for Food Bank of the Rockies to receive the donation. These types of collaborations among partners and Food Bank of the Rockies benefit all parties. Thank you to our partners who shared this need so it could be addressed.
Advocacy/Policy Update
End of the State Legislative Session
The Colorado legislative session ended on May 6. Feeding Colorado will provide a recap of the bills we’ve been tracking and how they’ve progressed this session next month. Stay tuned for our final session update, coming soon!
Farm Bill Watch
The Farm Bill is due to be reauthorized later this year. Check out Feeding America’s Farm Bill Legislation Watch Page, which includes our network’s Farm Bill priorities, fast facts, and an overview of this important legislation. Feeding Colorado will be in Washington, D.C., this month to discuss Farm Bill priorities with the Colorado and Wyoming delegations.
NEW Feeding America Tool
Did you know that Feeding America recently released a tool that displays how food banks and federal nutrition programs work together to keep households nourished? Click here to explore how many meals the federal nutrition programs and the charitable food system serve to communities in Colorado and across the country.
TEFAP Fact Sheet
TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) is a federal nutrition program that moves food from farms to food banks to individuals and families facing hunger. TEFAP is a cornerstone of the Feeding America network’s food supply. The program provides over 20% of the food distributed through Feeding America food banks and local hunger-relief programs! Click here to download a fact sheet about TEFAP that is useful for educating yourself, your volunteers, and your community about this great program.
Get Involved!
Are you interested in sharing why you care about fighting hunger with members of the Colorado legislature? Email Sarah Gregory at Feeding Colorado (sgregory@feedingcolorado.org) to learn more about opportunities to testify on legislation related to hunger in the 2023 legislative session.
Program Updates
Partner Support
Keep Your Toes Covered, Please!
Reminder: For safety reasons, NO open-toed shoes are allowed in or around the Fresh Food Center. We know that sandals are nice to wear during Colorado’s warm months, so we recommend keeping an extra pair of closed-toed shoes in your car. Please share this important message with your volunteers or staff who frequent the Food Bank for order pickups or to visit the Fresh Food Center. Partner representatives visiting without proper footwear will be asked to leave.
From Denver Public Health and Environment: 4 Best Practices to Save Food in Pantry Operations
- Offer clients a choice model (if feasible given space/staffing)
- Educate on date labels
- Follow food safety guidelines
- Ask for and follow through on client feedback
For details on these steps and relevant flyers in English and Spanish, please see the DPHE website!
Healthcare Program
In October 2022, Food Bank of the Rockies began developing partnerships with Denver area healthcare organizations for our latest program: delivering boxes of nutritious food and fresh produce to our neighbors on a weekly basis. The goal of this program supports our mission to nourish people facing hunger by building connections with health systems, hospitals, and medical clinics. We’ve joined forces with five healthcare organizations including Clinica Colorado, Denver Health, Denver Indian Health & Family Services, Lutheran Medical Center, and Platte Valley Medical Center. Since the launch of the program, we have delivered over 1,644 boxes of food and upwards of 7,700 pounds of fresh produce.
Our food boxes are all-encompassing and intended to nurture those with a heart-healthy and diabetic-friendly eating pattern. Curated by our Community Nutrition and Wellness Coordinator, each box includes nutrition education and recipes, plus referrals for other benefits.
Individuals diagnosed with a complex medical condition are screened by their primary care provider for food insecurity and, once qualified, are enrolled in the program. To date, we have 151 people signed up and our intent is to extend relief to as many communities in need as possible. We aspire to improve the health and wellness of the people we serve by increasing access to nutritionally dense foods and leading the way to our commitment to reducing food insecurity. Patients participating in this program are accepted only by a referring partner healthcare organization. Healthcare organizations interested in learning more about this program may contact Blake Bigger, Healthcare Partnership Coordinator: bbigger@foodbankrockies.org.
Food for Kids Update
Over 22 million children depend on their school’s breakfast and lunch program for regular meals and yet less than 3 million children participate in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). We need your help to close this gap.
We continue to accept applications for our Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Help us get free meals to kids over the summer who will be missing out on school lunches and other regular nutrition programs available during the school year. Please also help spread the word to other organizations that support children’s programming. You can access the fillable PDF application in our Partner Portal under Partner Forms & Documents in the Food for Kids dropdown menu. The application can be downloaded and saved to your computer to type your answers directly into the form.
If your organization hasn’t participated in SFSP before and is interested in learning more about the program, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Any questions regarding qualifications or the application process can be directed to our Food for Kids email at FFK@foodbankrockies.org.
Link2Feed Updates
We will be hosting Link2Feed trainings on June 6 at 2:00 p.m. and June 23 at 9:00 a.m. Please click here or email L2F@foodbankrockies.org to sign up for these sessions. If these dates do not work for you, please send us an email and we will do our best to accommodate.
This training signup is for existing Link2Feed partners in Colorado and covers basic client intake and recording services for food pantry, CSFP, TEFAP, or mobile pantry sites. This training is intended for new users at existing Link2Feed sites or as a refresher course for existing users.
We’d like to inform you of an important update planned for June 1, 2023. At the direction of the Department of Human Services, the phone number question will change from optional to required. In the event that a client may not have a phone number, a new “No Phone Number” checkbox will be added in Link2Feed (we will follow up when that goes live). Here is a link to a document fully explaining the change. You may also receive additional messages about this change from other Food Bank of the Rockies/Food Bank of Wyoming departments and teams that you work closely with.
Partner Resource
Colorado Nonprofit Salary Survey
Attention Colorado nonprofit professionals! Every two years, the Colorado Nonprofit Association publishes the Colorado Nonprofit Salary & Benefits Survey, which is composed of valuable data from nonprofits across the state and used by hundreds of nonprofits to set competitive compensation packages and attract and retain their most valuable asset: their people.
We are asking all Colorado nonprofits to participate in the 2023 Colorado Nonprofit Salary & Benefits Survey, which will offer information on salaries, including for EDs, insurance benefits, leave time, salary increases, bonuses, and so much more! The Survey is open NOW through May 19.
Complete the survey by May 19 and your organization will receive a 50% discount on the 2023 Colorado Nonprofit Salary & Benefits Survey publication, which will be available this fall. Your organization will also be entered into a drawing to win amazing prizes like:
- A free 2023 Colorado Nonprofit Salary & Benefits Survey publication
- A free year of membership with the Colorado Nonprofit Association
- Two complimentary tickets to a 2024 Connecting Colorado location
Your participation is vital to having the most complete and robust data available to the Colorado nonprofit sector. Don’t miss this chance to help all Colorado nonprofits remain competitive in recruiting and retaining employees!
Learn more about how to prepare for the survey before starting and take the survey today: https://coloradononprofits.org/salary-survey/
Partner Highlight
The Redistribution Center
We are spending this Memorial Day honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who have risked their lives serving in the United States Armed Forces.
As such, we would like to highlight The Redistribution Center as one of our amazing partners based in Jefferson County. An entirely volunteer-based organization, they provide assistance to individuals free of charge. For the past 27 years, The Redistribution Center, Inc. has partnered with local and national communities and organizations to assist families in need throughout the United States.
The Redistribution Center and their Warriors Warehouse offer a variety of aid options to active and Veteran military members as well as civilians. This aid comes in the form of household goods, food, disaster relief, clothing, personal hygiene kits, veteran advocacy, and much more. Since its founding in 1991, The Redistribution Center has gathered and redistributed over 87 million dollars’ worth of new household goods, toys, school supplies, clothing, furniture, food, and other items to people in need.
Soldiers can go down to the Warriors Warehouse on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Thank you to all the volunteers at the Redistribution Center who are helping our veterans, active military personnel, and their families access the resources they need! Our gratitude is beyond words. Watch their inspirational story here.
Neighbor Resources
Changes to Medicaid Enrollment
May 11, 2023, was the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE), which was declared in January 2020 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Congress passed legislation that ensured anyone enrolled in Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) was guaranteed to keep their health coverage during the PHE. This is known as the “continuous coverage requirement” and also applies to kids and pregnant people covered by Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+). Congress recently passed a bill that ends the continuous coverage requirement in spring 2023.
Help your neighbors understand what steps they need to take in order to keep their Medicaid coverage. A tool kit of materials and information is available here: https://hcpf.colorado.gov/covid-19-phe-planning
Community Event Highlight
Join Arapahoe County Government on June 30 from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. for a Veterans Stand Down!
A stand down is a community-based event to assist Veterans. It is a free event that provides resources to assist veterans and their families. There will be food, activities, and a job fair.
Open Position Spotlight
Executive Chef
Food Bank of the Rockies has an opening for an Executive Chef position. The Executive Chef will implement and support food and beverage-related programs across Food Bank of the Rockies locations, including food production of children’s meals, community meals, and catering functions. The Executive Chef will be responsible for managing all kitchen functions, including menu development, inventory, ordering and purchasing, food cost controls, training, sanitation, and personnel management. This position demands creativity and problem-solving within its daily operations, excellent communication skills, and the ability to maintain the highest culinary expectations according to company standards.
For full job postings and to see all opportunities with Food Bank of Rockies, please visit foodbankrockies.org/about/join-our-team.
Food Bank of the Rockies is an equal opportunity employer and offers paid time off, health, dental, and 401(k) benefits.
