Hunger Matters

OUR HUNGER LEADERSHIP WORK

Our Community Foundation strives to expand hunger relief efforts by providing financial and technical support to address unmet needs and expand programs. In collaboration with the Mesa County Hunger Alliance, our Community Foundation released a local action plan to alleviate hunger, the Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger, in 2021. This plan is the guiding document for organizations in the Grand Valley working to address hunger.

Our Community Foundation is proud to work with various hunger relief organizations that support households and individuals across our region.

Initiatives Include:

Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger

Mesa County has a plan to end hunger! Inspired by the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger , Mesa County developed its own Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger, thanks to funding from the Colorado Health Foundation and great engagement from the Mesa County Hunger Alliance.

Mesa County Blueprint to End Hunger

Key Goals Include

DOWNLOAD BLUEPRINT

Fostering Collaboration

Our Community Foundation played a lead role in convening the Mesa County Hunger Alliance over ten years ago and continues to facilitate this collaborative effort. The Hunger Alliance includes over 20 entities, fostering collaboration and working together to tackle hunger issues. The Hunger Alliance has received statewide attention for its efforts which has led to multi-year support from the state’s largest private foundation, the Colorado Health Foundation.

WCCF staff is available to make presentations on hunger in our community and share progress from our action plans. Please contact us with any questions.

Read the Daily Sentinel story here.

Read the Daily Sentinel OpEd “Let’s End Hunger” here.

Read WCCF’s Letter to the Editor to the Daily Sentinel on “joining our community foundation in ending hunger” here.

Supporting Food Recovery Efforts

Forty percent of food that is produced for consumption in the United States is wasted each year. This includes food that is never harvested or brought to market due to imperfections, as well as food items that sit too long in consumer refrigerators and end up spoiling. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates this is about 125 billion pounds of food in the United States that goes uneaten. The Environmental Protection Agency‘s Food Recovery Hierarchy prioritizes actions organizations can take to prevent and divert wasted food.

Our Community Foundation is pleased to support programs that have implemented creative solutions to keep food out of the landfill and into the bellies of those who are hungry, including Sodexo Dining Services at St. Mary’s Medical Center and Mesa County Valley School District 51. Our Community Foundation provided Sodexo at St. Mary’s Medical Center with funding for specialized equipment needed to support food recovery efforts. Colorado Mesa University and Sodexo Dining Services on campus have also long been working to keep unserved food from going to the landfill. Freshly prepared, yet unserved, foods are packaged for those in need within the CMU community. In 2020, our Community Foundation further supported food recovery in our community with a grant to HomewardBound to purchase a refrigerated food truck to handle their myriad food donation pick-ups from local grocery stores and institutions including St. Mary’s.

Alleviating Child Hunger

Our Community Foundation cares deeply about child hunger in our communities. After learning about gaps in services, our Community Foundation partnered with School District 51’s Food and Nutrition Services to pilot the Lunch Lizard in 2015, bringing free summer meals to low-income neighborhoods to ensure kids have access to a nutritious lunch when school is out. Since its inception, the Lunch Lizard has increased the number of meals served sixfold, providing about 19,000 meals to children each summer. This innovative solution is a model for school districts throughout the state and the country.