The 2025 Colorado legislative session came to a close earlier this month, and we’re reflecting on what we accomplished together—and what still lies ahead in the fight for food justice across our state.
This session was filled with powerful wins, hard truths, and a deepening understanding that lasting change only happens when communities show up and stay engaged. At Hunger Free Colorado, we were proud to stand with all of you—advocates, partners, organizers, and community members—who fought to ensure every Coloradan has access to the food they need to thrive.
🥗 A Session of Progress—and Budget Struggles
Throughout the legislative session, Hunger Free Colorado advocated for policies that support equitable access to nutritious foods and strengthen communities. Since we know hunger is an intersectional issue, alongside partners and our community, we also took positions on, tracked, provided feedback and testimony, and advocated on more than twenty proposals, bills, and budget items on issues ranging from price-gouging protections to language access to immigrant rights and data protections. Our main focus, though, was securing the future of Colorado’s Healthy School Meals for All program, which has seen great success with high participation but is also facing a serious budget shortfall. Here are a few highlights in the food space:
🍏 HB1274: Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA)
We came out strong to protect and fully implement Healthy School Meals for All, and your voices made the difference. From our community kickoff event in December—where we made it clear this would be a fight—to lobby days, testimony, social media campaigns, and letters to the editor, this was a full-community effort. Thanks to your support, HB1274, which refers two measures to the 2025 ballot to retain and raise additional revenue to fully fund HSMA, passed with bipartisan support. A huge thank you to our legislative champions, especially our bill sponsors Rep. Lorena Garcia, Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, and Sen. Katie Wallace, and to every person who spoke up. This win belongs to all of us. Learn more about the bill and its supporters here. (Spanish here)
♻️ Tackling Food Waste
We also saw progress on bills to address food waste in school meal programs (HB1094) and in communities (HB1166)—an important step toward a more sustainable and equitable food system. Giving schools and organizations the tools to prevent good food from going to waste supports hungry Coloradans and the environment.
🍽️ Restaurant Meals Program
We backed SB169, led by our partners at the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, to make food more accessible for those experiencing homelessness or who lack access to kitchen facilities, by allowing them to use SNAP benefits at approved restaurants. Passage of this bill will put Colorado on the path to implementing the Restaurant Meals Program in the future! Learn more here.
💸 The Budget Reality
This legislative session brought some serious challenges that we’ll continue to face in the years ahead. Lawmakers were forced to address a billion-dollar budget shortfall, and because of TABOR restrictions, they had limited options—leading to painful cuts.
Unfortunately, the final state budget included reductions to SNAP Outreach and funding for food pantries and food banks. We’re especially grateful to our partners, advocates, and legislative champions—Sen. Lisa Cutter and Rep. Jenny Willford—who moved quickly to introduce a budget amendment seeking to restore SNAP Outreach funding. While the amendment passed in both chambers, it was ultimately removed in the final budget during conference committee negotiations, so the program will have only $500,000 in state funds next year, a $500,000 reduction. Those SNAP Outreach investments are federally matched, so the impact will be felt doubly. $3 million in annual funding for food banks and food pantries that passed last year in HB24-1407 was cut by $1 million. We appreciate the leadership of Feeding Colorado in working to preserve the $2 million in funding for food pantries and food banks in the face of these budget shortfalls.
These reductions will have real consequences for communities across Colorado. We’ll need to find creative solutions and alternative funding sources to support food pantries and food banks and ensure people can access the healthy food they need to thrive.
But to truly address the root of the problem, we need to talk about the structural issues in our state budget—especially the limitations imposed by TABOR, which continue to restrict Colorado’s ability to respond to the needs of its people. Learn more from our partners at the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
🔥 Community Power is the Path Forward
Throughout the session, we witnessed the strength of community-driven advocacy. From powerful testimony to packed hearing rooms, to stories that moved hearts and shifted votes—our collective voice mattered.
But the fight for food justice doesn’t end with the legislative session. In fact, we’re just getting started.
🗳️Next Stop: The Ballot!
We’re shifting gears and heading into the next phase—a ballot campaign to protect and sustain Healthy School Meals for All. We need to make sure that the ballot measures HB1274 refers to Colorado voters pass this fall! These measures will prevent the program from getting rolled back to only certain schools beginning in January 2026, but they also will help Colorado to realize the full vision of HSMA, including:
- Sustainable ongoing funding for public school students to have access to free breakfast and lunch at school into the future
- Boosted compensation for frontline school nutrition professionals serving our students each day
- Support for kitchen equipment and training to support more scratch cooking and local sourcing
- Funding for schools to purchase local products from Colorado farmers and ranchers
We’ll need you again, as we work toward fully funding and implementing HSMA through this ballot campaign, whether it’s knocking on doors, sharing your story, or getting the word out in your community.
Thank you for your partnership this past legislative session. Now, let’s keep building power, together!