Hunger Matters provides updates about our community efforts
to alleviate hunger in western Colorado
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Construction Underway
Food Bank of the Rockies Etkin Family Distribution Center
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Hard hats and smiles: Sue Ellen Rodwick, Director of Food Bank of the Rockies Western Slope (left), Amanda de Bock, Director of Mesa County Meals on Wheels (center) and Anne Wenzel, President/ CEO of the Western Colorado Community Foundation at a groundbreaking event in January |
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Western Slope Food Bank of the Rockies and Meals on Wheels Mesa County are closer than ever to bringing a shared vision to reality. On January 27, Food Bank of the Rockies (FBR) publicly announced its campaign for the Etkin Family Distribution Center which will be the new home for FBR’s Western Slope operations, moving from Palisade to Grand Junction. The new distribution center will be nearly double the size of the current warehouse in order to meet growing needs in the 13-county region they serve. Construction and the fundraising campaign are well underway, and doors plan to open in late summer 2022. Meals on Wheels will be operating out of a newly designed commercial kitchen within FBR’s Etkin Family Distribution Center, enabling them to make up to 1,000 meals/day for at-risk seniors - almost double the number of meals they can make now. Like FBR, Meals on Wheels has experienced tremendous growth, going from providing 120,000 meals in 2019 to providing nearly 190,000 meals in 2021.
Amanda de Bock, Director of Meals on Wheels Mesa County, thanked WCCF for the role they played in bringing this partnership to fruition, “It’s because of Anne's passion and leadership that Mesa County has a comprehensive plan that’s being looked to by the rest of the state of Colorado as the gold standard of efforts to push the needle forward in ending hunger, and it’s the reason that our two organizations have come together.”
The Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger was released in July 2021. Collaborations such as this are key goals of the Blueprint. Anne Wenzel, Community Foundation President/CEO, noted, “Mesa County is known across the state as a community that is highly collaborative. People and organizations work across sectors and work together to solve problems in creative ways. [This is an] exciting collaboration between Food Bank of the Rockies and our local Meals on Wheels – two organizations coming together to build and share this new commercial kitchen. Collaboration is a hallmark quality of our community. This project exemplifies that.”
To learn more about FBR’s plans for the new distribution center, see their capital campaign information here. More information about the facility is located in a Daily Sentinel article here and a Business Times article here.
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The new Food Bank of the Rockies' Western Slope Distribution Facility takes shape at
698 Long Acre Drive in Grand Junction
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Clifton Christian Church Food Bank
Modest Expansion to Greatly Enhance Services
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People familiar with volunteers and staff at local food pantries know that they tend to be hard-working and tireless as they work to support households during challenging times. Jackie Feaster, Clifton Christian Church Food Bank’s Director, is no exception. Like most food pantries, their food bank saw a great increase in clients in 2021, with 39,000 individuals served. In all of 2020, 33,000 individuals were served.
The longtime dream to expand Clifton Christian Church Food Bank and offer more services is becoming a reality. The food bank is conducting a capital campaign to add another 700 square feet of space on the west side of the building, where dry food goods will be stored. This modest addition will create a new intake room for clients and free up office space to help clients enroll in food assistance programs such as WIC and SNAP. A bilingual Resource Navigator is available to help clients enroll in SNAP, a position that was funded to support the goals of the Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger.
With generous support from Community Foundation donors and the Grand Junction Lion’s Club, Clifton Christian Church Food Bank is currently at 80% of their fundraising goal for the building expansion. They have $23,000 left to raise. In addition, just last week one of our Community Foundation donor-advised funds committed $35,000 to purchase a large, walk-in cold storage unit. This unit will expand storage for produce, dairy and meat items, further helping them achieve their goal of providing more fresh food items to clients.
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Clifton Christian Church Food Bank’s hallway stocked floor to ceiling with items for
500 Thanksgiving boxes. Plans are in place to convert this hallway into a choice pantry
once their building expansion and remodel is complete.
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Learn more about how Food Bank of the Rockies and Clifton Christian Church Food Bank are working together to stretch food budgets and support households. |
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CMU Mavericks Initiative:
Swiping Out Hunger One Plate at a Time
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Colorado Mesa University (CMU) has nearly 11,000 students, including many first-generation, lower income and adult students who are working and/or caring for their families while earning their degrees. Even before the uptick of food insecurity brought about by COVID-19, there was growing attention to the basic needs of college students. |
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Recent data shows that 45% of college students across the nation struggle to access the type and quantity of food that supports their mental and physical health.
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CMU is working collaboratively across organizations and departments to ensure their student body excels holistically, not only academically. Sodexo, CMU’s food service partner, has long worked to decrease food waste in the cafeteria and to redirect prepared, unserved food to nonprofits working to feed the community. While the CMU food recovery program was put on pause during COVID, it is getting a reboot, with excess food being directed to college students who are on tight budgets and to those who could benefit from a healthy food source. This is being developed in partnership with The Pantry, where students can stop by CMU’s Lowell Heiny Hall to pick up or request food. The Pantry is a service available to all students.
CMU’s Associated Student Government (ASG) is also working with Sodexo on an initiative called Swipe Out Hunger, where one meal will be donated by Sodexo for every resident meal plan purchased. In the fall semester of 2021, Sodexo donated about 2,100 meals to students in need through this program.
“It’s important to note that the process of getting meals is pretty anonymous. Meals are allocated on the students’ MAVcard. There is nothing to identify and draw attention that students may be food insecure. We want students to be comfortable," said CMU Director of Budgets and Food Services Whitney Sutton.
Stigma is a large hurdle to overcome on college campuses, with students not wanting to be singled out for needing extra support. To help combat this, CMU was recently designated as a Healthy Minds and Hunger Free campus from the Colorado Department of Higher Education, joining other campuses who are implementing new programs and ensuring that campus and community resources are within reach to support student success. CMU’s ASG has connected with several Hunger Alliance organizations and hopes to develop a campus-wide event to share food resources with students this Spring.
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Sunday Suppers Support
CMU Students
Over the past six years, The Christ Center at Colorado Mesa University and Four Winds Coffee and Tea have been partnering with a number of churches to provide a free dinner for CMU students on Sunday evenings. The churches involved were seeing many students who did not have the financial means to buy food for the weekend. To respond to this need, a new program launched - Sunday Suppers. Each participating church provides a full meal to be enjoyed at Four Winds or to be taken to-go. No sign-up is required; students simply show up and enjoy a meal. These dinners serve anywhere from 25 to 150 students on any given Sunday.
If you would like to get involved in the Sunday Supper efforts, please contact Will Kuhlman, Director of The Christ Center, at 970-243-8848.
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Welcome Carly and Jesus to Community Food Bank
Community Food Bank welcomes two bilingual staff to their team, hiring Carly Luebber as a Resource Navigator and Jesus Loera as an Outreach and Operations Assistant. Carly’s position as Resource Navigator is funded in part from the Colorado Health Foundation’s grant to support the goals of the Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger. Carly will be working to enroll eligible individuals in SNAP and be a resource for several organizations within the Hunger Alliance. When Carly is not at Community Food Bank, she will be helping Mutual Aid Partners on Tuesdays and Clifton Christian Church Food Bank on Wednesdays. Jesus is supporting various operations at Community Food Bank, along with doing community outreach to better meet the needs of Spanish-speaking clients.
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Hunger is a problem here in western Colorado…
where one in two children qualify for free or reduced price school lunch and one in
eight residents do not know where their next meal may be coming from. Our regional
Community Foundation has been working on expanding hunger relief efforts, including the development of summer mobile meal programs - the Lunch Lizard (Mesa County) and the
Meal Monkey (Garfield County) - and providing funding and technical
assistance to address unmet needs and expand programs.
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Please consider a donation today.
Any size gift appreciated!
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