Cultivating Colorado’s food system.
Food pantries (and food banks) play a major role in ensuring all Coloradans have access to the healthy food needed to thrive while we work at the state and federal levels to end hunger in our state.
Inequitable food access disproportionately affects vulnerable communities throughout Colorado. The charitable/emergency food system plays an important role in addressing this challenge. A key issue for Colorado is that communities experiencing food insecurity lack access to fresh, quality, and nutritionally diverse foods. Sourcing local food from our farmers, ranchers, and producers is a solution that has the added benefit of supporting our local food system.
Our Farm to Food Pantry Initiative works to develop local food systems focused on equity. We accomplish this by centering producers and food access organizations at the nexus of solutions.
What is the Farm to Food Pantry Initiative?
Our team of five regional food coordinators works across Colorado. They develop and support relationships between regional food producers and food pantries. They currently work in and serve Southwest Colorado, east of Denver, Northwestern Colorado, the Denver metro area, and the Western Slope.
The team recently launched numerous pilots and a social enterprise to build food sovereignty in communities, helped found and support the Colorado Farm and Food Systems Response Team, and got dozens of local producers to sign up for the Colorado Proud Program.
Food Pantry Local Purchasing Guide
Use the guide to find what’s growing near you, delivery options, contact information, and more.
Meet our Regional Food Coordinators
Meredith Rose, Steamboat Springs
Meredith’s journey into local food began as a young adult. In college, she took a course that sparked her interest in agriculture. This interest became a hobby when she moved to the Yampa Valley in 2014 and started volunteering for the Community Agriculture Alliance for their local food market. Her hobby of local food grew into a passion and is now the north-star in her career path. Presently, she is the Program Coordinator for the Community Agriculture Alliance, an officer of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union’s Northwest Colorado Chapter and a Regional Food Coordinator for Hunger Free Colorado. She enjoys connecting with local food any chance she gets and sharing the farmer’s story. She is the owner of Rose West, an ag marketing and resource business, that launched this year. Away from the CAA, you can find her cross-country skiing or hiking with her dog, Tilly, or enjoying a beer at Storm Peak Brewing Co. in Steamboat.
Gwen Cameron, Palisade
A second generation fruit grower, Gwen Cameron farms 38 acres of organic peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and melons in the desert canyons of Palisade, Colorado. She believes the best fruit is grown from well-tended soil and is harvested by workers with a deep connection to the land. Gwen is president of her Rocky Mountain Farmers Union chapter. She was named Young Grower of the Year by the Western Colorado Horticultural Society in 2018. As a regional food coordinator at Hunger Free Colorado, she works to provide communities with high quality, fresh food, while helping farmers and food pantries build more resilient food systems in their communities.
Rachel Landis, Durango
Rachel Landis’ belief in the power of food systems to act as a near ‘cure all’ for many of our social and environmental challenges started in 2001 during a stint living on a self-sufficient farm, off the grid in upstate New York. On the shores of Lake Masseweepie, food was a source of purpose, community, joy, identity, and stewardship.
Off the farm and back in her beloved SW for the past decade, Rachel has sought out opportunities that weave together community-building, sustainability, and food systems. Rachel is currently the Director of The Good Food Collective and the Project Weaver for the La Plata Food Equity Coalition, and a Regional Food Coordinator for Hunger Free Colorado. Within this work, she has found some of the deepest fulfillment from witnessing the shared joy of farmers, food pantries, and clients as healthy local food makes its way from our farmers’ fields to our community members’ forks.
Roberto Meza, Bennett
On a mission to cultivate, heal, and transform communities with access to fresh food, Roberto cofounded Emerald Gardens, a year round greenhouse farm, in 2017. They currently occupy 35 acres in Bennett, Colorado and operate cooperatively with Sugar Moon Mushrooms and ValueCycle greenhouse farm on the same land.
In 2020, Roberto cofounded the East Denver Food Hub (EDFH), which works to create an equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system that meets the needs of communities and rural food producers.
Roberto is the chair of Membership and Outreach for Mile High Farmers, the local chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. He is also a member of the Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council, and board member of the High Plains Food Co-op and the National Young Farmers Coalition.
Rosalind May, Lakewood
Rosalind May is the founder of Rocky Mountain Local Food, a business focused on food systems support, connections and value-chain coordinating. With Rocky Mountain Local Food she works in collaboration with East Denver Food Hub, including initally piloting technical assistance to connect food pantries with farmers. That pilot influenced the development of five Regional Food Coordiantor positions across the state, supported by Hunger Free Colorado. Rosalind continues to work on expanding the capacity and impact to connect farms and emergency food providers and transform our local and regional food systems to be more just, transparent and viable. Rosalind is also the Executive Director of the Colorado Farmers Market Association (CFMA).
Kate Falkenhart
Marci Cochran
First-Year Highlights
- LIFT-UP fundraised and spent more than $60,000 in local purchases from 22 different local farms and producers. By working with Skips Farm to Market, LIFT-UP has committed at least $100,000 to local farms in 2021. The LIFT-UP pantry network operates six food pantries across Garfield and Pitkin counties.
- A partnership between Mercy Hospital and The Good Food Collective committed $300,000 over three years to improving healthy food access and supporting local farmers in southwest Colorado. In its first year, more than $100,000 of local food was distributed to community members.
- Procured and distributed more than 10,000 pounds of local food for food access organizations and other community partners. Coordinated an innovative joint purchase between a Boulder county farmer and nearly a dozen food pantries for 50,000 pounds of beans.