Hunger Free Colorado

Client services: hfc's client services team makes it easier for people to access food resources with dignity. Through a multilingual food resource hotline, a bilingual mobile outreach team and a statewide network of partners, we assisted more than 17,600 households in submitting applications to the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) and connected these households to additional healthy food resources including the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children (wic), school meals, food pantries, and meal sites.

Policy and advocacy: hfc collaborated with many partners to secure 3 million this year in state funding for food pantries and food banks through the community food assistance provider grant program. Hfc also led efforts to successfully advocate for Colorado to participate in the federal summer ebt program, which began this summer. This program enabled up to 550,000 Colorado children in obtaining 120 each in food benefits during the summer months when school is out and child food insecurity is at its highest.

Organizing: the healthy school meals for all (hsma) program provides Free school meals to all Colorado students at participating public schools. The organizing team worked to bring parents and students together with school districts and local food producers to ensure that through hsma, school meals are not only accessible to all students, but also nutritious, locally sourced and appealing. We worked with 1,000 youth, parents, farmers and school nutrition professionals, and organized dozens of listening and education sessions and advocacy trainings to build the infrastructure for shaping meals that are nutritious, culturally relevant and what parents and students want and need to be healthy.

Outreach & communication