Happy fall to all our Community Food Bank friends and family! 

What incredibly beautiful weather we have been having this October, I hope you all have been able to get out and enjoy it. However, with the first snow up on the Mesa, Halloween next week, and the cooler temps settling in... the holiday season is officially upon us. 

Our team is ramping up for the busiest time of year at the Community Food Bank -- packed with holiday food drives, our busiest program service months, and our primary fundraising season -- there are many ways for you to get involved in support of our work!! 

While the holiday season is a time of festive celebration with loved ones for most, for many it can be a time of intense stress and solitude.

In response to this, we work hard to collect and procure traditional holiday foods so everyone in our community can enjoy a festive holiday meal with loved ones. With your help, we can take a bit of stress off the plates of our Grand Valley neighbors in need, and ensure our most vulnerable community members know someone cares about them. 

On a personal note, I am taking the week off to celebrate our daughter's first birthday, and to rest and recharge before hitting the ground running in November. Many sincere thanks to all our staff and volunteers holding down the fort so I can have this important time with family!!

Please see below for our highest needs right now. We have LOTS of volunteer vacancies and can use your help spreading the word about hosting holiday food drives!!

Most importantly of all, please consider becoming a member of the Community Food Bank Harvest Club. Making a donation of any size every month, makes a BIG impact on our mission to make sure no one goes hungry in Mesa County. Monthly donations can be easily set up through the link with a credit card or bank account. If you prefer to send in a check or use another donation avenue, just let us know and we can easily help set that up :-) 

For those of you who are already making monthly donations, THANK YOU!!  Please bear with us as we work to transition you over *officially* to the Harvest Club. 

Finally, we have been working on building out a more robust fundraising database and communications strategy to support our growing organization. We now have better capacity and capability to tailor our efforts than we did previously. If you receive an email or something in the mail, and would like to be removed from the list, kindly just let me know and I will remove you.  We did not have a good way of tracking those requests previously, so please forgive us if you had made this request previously and still receive something over the next month or two. 

Executive Director Alisha and food bank baby Olivia hiking hanging lake  

CFB and GVRP volunteer extraordinaire, Biff Messinger, along with one of the recently resettled family members head out to make the first Afghan family home deliveries this month!! 

Afghan Refugee Family Food Boxes 

Many of you may be aware of the Grand Valley Resettlement Program (GVRP) welcoming around 10 Afghan refugee families to Mesa County. 

The Community Food Bank is proud to be supporting these new neighbors and helping them to learn and navigate community resources like ours!!

In September, the Afghan families came by for a guided tour to learn how to use the public pantry with their local family advocates. However, since these families do not have reliable access to transportation just yet, we offered to provide a home delivery once per month until they are a bit more settled in. 

Working with our normal food inventory, and procuring a few specialty items that align best with their cultural dietary needs, we are proud to help these lovely folks feel a bit more at home as they adjust to a new culture and way of life here in the Grand Valley! 

Food, tradition, and culture go hand in hand. With your help, and the help of many across the community, we are all making sure these families can finally land in a safe place to call home. 

Follow the links below to learn a bit more about the resettlement program:

https://www.jdainternational.org/gvrp

GJ Sentinel Article

KKCO News 

Specialty dry goods boxes heading out to support families with culturally relevant items like Turmeric, Basmati rice, and corn flour. Foods like these will help our Afghan families feel more at home in their new community. 

Specialty perishables box include two packages of Halal chicken, spinach, chives and more! Halal meats (processed according to Islamic tradition) are very hard to find in Mesa County. 

Want to Help Out? Host a Holiday Food Drive!! 

Help spread holiday cheer to all corners of the Grand Valley this Thanksgiving & Christmas by hosting a holiday food drive at your place of business, church, organization, or gathering!!

Visit our website to download a flyer and learn more! 

In addition, we know only too well how high food costs are right now, so we have included a *Virtual* food drive donation campaign this year for those who would prefer to make a financial contribution.

Every $1 donated

provides 4 nutritious meals

to our Grand Valley neighbors in need. 

Thanks to our awesome volunteers - we have a bunch of decorated collection bins for those who want to host a food drive!! 

Volunteer Coordinator, Katelynn Demskie and volunteer Eileen G. having fun collecting donations from the Grand Valley Interfaith Network in the beautiful fall weather! 

Thank you to the Grand Valley Interfaith Network for kicking off the fall food drive season & collecting nearly 1,000 lbs of holiday foods in support of CFB!! 

Food Sourcing Struggles Continue 

As you can see from the below impact dashboard charts, the Community Food Bank continues to experience a high volume for our food access and hunger relief programs. However, we have been receiving significantly less donated foods from Food Bank of the Rockies (50% less in September than in August). 

That means while we continued to serve an average of 6,000 individuals in September, you can see we distributed around 20,000 pounds LESS food last month. The difference is in the amount of donated & no-cost products we have been able to procure from Food Bank of the Rockies, and slightly lower grocery rescue amounts. So while our food costs remain high, we have had to reduce allocation limits during pantry and delivery services in order to make ends meet. 

Please know that we are doing our very best, and it doesn't always come down to price!! Often supply chain logistics, and limited ordering and delivery capacity of Food Bank of the Rockies come into play as well. As Food Bank of the Rockies gears up to move into their new, much larger, facility on the Western part of town -- we have been busy stocking up in anticipation of limited ordering availability over the next few weeks. 

What is the Difference?

Food Bank of the Rockies & Community Food Bank...

We get this question often! Many donors and clients are hearing from both organizations and don't quite know what the difference between our two organizations. Many people think we get everything for FREE from Food Bank of the Rockies, and many people think Food Bank of the Rockies run programs like ours. Neither of these are accurate! 

So what's the difference? The simplest explanation is to use the analogy of wholesale vs. retail. Food Bank of the Rockies is a "wholesale" provider, Community Food Bank is the "retail" operation with direct to client programs. 

Food Bank of the Rockies is where we procure the majority of our dry goods and purchased products. Currently we spend around $16,000 per month purchasing food from Food Bank of the Rockies. When items are donated to them, they are offered to us at no cost. Additionally, they have committed to providing fresh fruits and veggies every week at no cost, which has been incredibly important to our pantry clients!

Pantry programs like ours are the primary customers and clients of Food Bank of the Rockies. Programs like the Community Food Bank are the "last mile" organizations who get food directly to people in need. 

Food Bank of the Rockies is a Feeding America Food Bank who serves pantry programs across all of Colorado and Wyoming. Food Bank of the Rockies Western Slope serves over 100 programs like ours across multiple counties outside the front range. 

Community Food Bank only serves those in need living in Mesa County. 

Take Action Today

Support the Community Food Bank! 

Become a Community Food Bank Harvest Member!! 

Monthly donations to the Community Food Bank are the most effective and impactful way to support our work to end hunger in Mesa County. 

We are experiencing record high demand, with unprecedented food costs.

We need your help to make sure no one goes hungry in our community. 

With an average cost per meal of just $0.25 your monthly donations can make a big impact. Every $1 donated helps provide 4 nutritious meals to our Grand Valley neighbors!

Please consider becoming a monthly donor, every donation makes a difference.