As rising costs continue to affect families, we’ve seen more of our neighbors turning to us for help. Over the past year, our direct distribution programs served 72% more people than the year before—surpassing the demand we saw even at the height of the pandemic.
When you support our work, you're not just helping our direct programs; you're also empowering our hunger relief network of 42 Partner Agencies, including Broomfield FISH, EFAA, and OUR Center. This collective effort allows Community Food Share to extend our reach and provide more families with the nutritious food they need. Together, we distribute 30,000 meals every day—enough to fill a sold-out Red Rocks Amphitheater twice.
Every $1 you contribute provides $6 worth of groceries. We provide healthy, nourishing food to families, individuals, and older adults through our onsite and mobile pantries and collaboration with our hunger relief network of 42 Partner Agencies.
Feeding Families Onsite Food Pantry
Our “choice pantry” model allows them to choose the fresh produce, milk, grains, and other nutritious staples they need to live active, healthy lives. Feeding Families offers in-person shopping Wednesday - Friday.
Mobile Pantries
Not everyone can get to our onsite food pantry or visit one of our Partner Agencies — so we go to them. We bring “pantries on wheels” to neighborhoods with limited access to nutritious foods, delivering fresh produce, dairy, and meat.
Cultural Food Purchase
Our Cultural Food Purchase program allows us to keep our pantries and Partner Agencies stocked with a variety of foods that community members recognize and know how to cook. By providing access to familiar, nutritious food, more of our neighbors have food that is meaningful to them and their families.
Blue Spruce Neighborhood for Older Adults
Our Blue Spruce program provides free groceries twice per month. Food choices include fresh produce, milk, meat, frozen items, deli products, eggs, bread, shelf-stable pantry items, and other nutritious options.
Community Roots Garden
Sustainability is a core value of Community Food Share, and we are committed to providing sustainable agriculture through our Community Roots Farm Program and increasing the amount of food we grow ourselves, locally.
Through our Community Roots Program, we can provide neighbors visiting our pantries access to fresh, organic produce that may not be easily accessible or affordable at local stores.
We’re cultivating one acre at Andrew’s Family Farm in Boulder County. Since starting our growing operations in 2021, we’ve grown tens of thousands of organic produce. Last year, our garden produced nearly 15,000 pounds of produce.
We fight hunger by providing equitable access to nutritious food to our neighbors in Boulder and Broomfield Counties.
Community Food Share was created as a non-profit food bank in 1981 and became an affiliate of America's Second Harvest (now called Feeding America). Originally operating under the umbrella of Food Bank of the Rockies, Community Food Share began operations in space at EFAA's ECHO House Emergency Shelter in Boulder. Kathy Coyne was hired as the sole staff member of this new organization. Shortly thereafter, the City of Boulder offered space, for only $1 a year, in a city-owned building on 13th Street. Immediately, Community Food Share began collecting and distributing food to 18 human service agencies in Boulder County.
Raising awareness became a top priority of this fledgling organization. Kathy Coyne began speaking to civic organizations, members of the community, and really "anyone who would listen," about the reality of local hunger. Step by step, she succeeded in engaging the community in the problem. By the end of 1981, after operating for only six months, Community Food Share had distributed 48,000 pounds of food.
In the early 1980s, food banks were still a relatively new concept across the United States and most, if not all, were located in large metropolitan areas. Due to its smaller size, Community Food Share was able to be more innovative in creating new programs to solve the issue of hunger in our community.
That innovative spirit has carried us through the victories we celebrate today - From partnering with local farms to building a mobile food pantry, we're always finding new ways to source and deliver the best food to more people, so we can end hunger in our neighborhood for good.
Organization name
Community Food Share
1981
Category
Food, Agriculture & Nutrition, Human Services, Community Improvement & Capacity Building, Public & Societal Benefit, Youth Development
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
650 S. Taylor AvenueBoulder County, CO, US
Broomfield County, CO, US