Community Food Share

A nonprofit organization

As families struggle with the impacts of rising costs, Community Food Share continues to see an increasing number of our neighbors accessing our programs. This year, Community Food Share recorded the highest number of unique households served in one month, and visits have increased by nearly 45% year-over-year, surpassing the numbers we saw at the height of the pandemic. 

When you support Community Food Share, you’re not only supporting our direct distribution programs, but you’re also helping sustain 40+ non-profits within our local hunger-relief network like Broomfield FISH, EFAA, and OUR Center. This collective effort allows Community Food Share to reach even more individuals and families in need, providing them with essential, nutritious food.

Our Mission is Simple Yet Powerful 

We fight hunger through a community-led, community-fed approach to nourish our Boulder and Broomfield Counties neighbors. 

Your Gift Makes a Significant Impact

Every $1 you contribute provides $5 worth of groceries. We provide healthy, nourishing food to families, individuals, and older adults through our onsite and mobile pantries and collaboration with our 40+ local partners.



Our Programs

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.

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.

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.

Community Roots Garden 

We’re digging in at three locations across Boulder County, on more than 2/3 acre. This past summer, we’ve grown 10,000 pounds of our own produce for distribution.




Mission

We fight hunger through a community-led, community fed approach to nourish our neighbors in Boulder and Broomfield Counties.

Background Statement

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 Data

Summary

Organization name

Community Food Share

Year Established

1981

Category

Food, Agriculture & Nutrition, Human Services, Community Improvement & Capacity Building, Public & Societal Benefit, Youth Development

Organization Size

Large Organization

Address

650 S. Taylor Avenue
Louisville, CO 80027

Service areas

Boulder County, CO, US

Broomfield County, CO, US

Phone

303-652-3663

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