Hunger Free Colorado Proposal

Community Food Systems Development

Project Lead:

Jason Harrison, Community Food Systems Manager

Executive Summary:
Over the last three years, Hunger Free Colorado has worked with the state legislature to allocate $1.2 million to the Food Pantry Assistance Grant program to provide financial resources for food pantries and food banks to purchase dairy, meat, and produce products from local agricultural producers, farmers, and ranchers. This program was the direct result of 83% of 3,500 food pantry clients identifying dairy, meat, and produce as the most important items for clients to receive when visiting a food pantry.

To better support the ability of food pantries in the state to purchase local food, Hunger Free Colorado hired five Regional Food Coordinators, who are experts in their communities, to provide technical assistance to emergency food access organizations in procuring local food. These five Regional Food Coordinators are based in Denver, Bennet, Steamboat Springs, Palisade, and Durango.

This project will evaluate and assess the impacts and efficacy of state funded resources and technical assistance for emergency food providers and their local agricultural partners, while simultaneously exploring the possibility of food access organizations to provide a viable market channel for local producers, farmers, and ranchers. This project will also address how these programs impact the quality and abundance of healthy and nutritious food in the emergency food system. Finally, this project will provide recommendations and next steps for future funding, technical assistance, challenges, and gaps in supporting the development of community food systems through partnership with the emergency food system.

Key words:
Food security, food procurement, emergency food systems, local/regional food, policy advocacy

Links:
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