Summary
Organization name
Community Food Share
1981
Category
Human Services
Address
650 S. Taylor AvenueLouisville, CO 80027
Boulder County, CO, US
Broomfield County, CO, US
About
Our Community
This year, Community Food Share recorded the highest number of unique households served in one month. Surpassing the numbers we saw at the height of the pandemic. As families struggle with the impacts of rising costs, we continue to see increasingly more of our neighbors visit the pantry. Over the last year, visits have increased nearly 45%.
Our Food Bank is Fighting Hunger
At Community Food Share, our mission is simple yet powerful: to fight hunger through a community-led, community-fed approach to nourish our neighbors in Boulder and Broomfield Counties.
Your Gift Makes a Significant Impact
Every $1 you contribute provides $5 worth of groceries. We provide healthy, nutritious 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 ring “pantries on wheels” to neighborhoods with limited access to nutritious foods, delivering fresh produce, dairy, and meat.
Blue Spruce Neighbors 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.
SNAP Application Assistance
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) provides monthly assistance for individuals and families who need help getting enough food. SNAP benefits can be used to purchase food at participating grocery stores, convenience stores, and some farmer’s markets and co-op food programs.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
Participants who meet TEFAP guidelines may access additional pantry items provided by TEFAP, like beans, peanut butter, canned vegetables, and cereals, while they shop at Community Food Share’s onsite pantry.
Emergency Food
Participants receive both fresh and non-perishable food items, and staff members often customize the selection based on recipients’ dietary restrictions as well as their access to food storage and cooking appliances.
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.
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Organization Data
Louisville, CO 80027