Denver’s Bob Bell Named Good Neighbor Award Winner

Denver’s own Bob Bell, Colorado’s Heart Award Metro District Finalist, has been named a National Association of REALTORS® Good Neighbor Award winner. Bob will receive $10,000 for the nonprofit organization he founded, Food for Thought Denver, which provides meals to K-12 grade students who might normally go hungry on the weekends.

About 100 volunteers gather weekly to pack “Power Sacks,” bags containing enough nonperishable food to last the weekend, for students in 72 Denver, Aurora and Adams County public schools. Each month, they provide 20,000 bags of food for students’ families for the weekend. Now in its tenth year of operations, Food For Thought has provided nearly 4,000,000 meals to children and their families.

It all started near his home in Arvada, when he ran into a teacher he knew. "She told me about these kids at her school at 40th and Federal whose last meal they count on is hot lunch on Friday," Bell said.

Now the process of buying, loading, packing and delivering the food begins every Thursday, when Bob and his crew purchase their food from Food Bank of the Rockies. On Fridays at 4:30am, volunteers pack the meals and deliver the Power Sacks to schools by lunchtime. The volunteers use six donated trucks to deliver the meals. The students then take these bags home to their families so they can eat over the weekend. Schools served by the program are those that average a higher than 90% Free and Reduced Lunch population, and in order to mitigate social shame amongst these students, Food For Thought feeds every student in the school.

Bob believes kids think better when they're not hungry, hence the organization’s name: Food for Thought.

In addition to the organization’s robust charitable mission, it has minimal overhead expenses aside from administrative costs, which board members cover. To help pay for the food, Bell organizes an annual music and food fundraiser called the Rock-a-Belly Festival each summer, which aims to raise $100,000 through ticket sales.

To get involved with Food for Thought, contact Bob Bell at milehiproperty@gmail.com, and learn more about the program at https://foodforthoughtdenver. org/.