Building the bounty

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AREA NONPROFITS ADDRESS FOOD INSECURITY BY JENNAYE DERGE

t’s amazing how much we think about food and also, at the same time, don’t think about it at all. We often talk about what we’ll have for lunch or dinner without wondering how or why our food will get to us or more importantly, if.

Yes, many of us are lucky to feel pretty food secure, but what is food security and how “secure” are we really?

Rachel Landis, director of the Good Food Collective could probably argue that Southwest Colorado is both secure and insecure in its food bounty. The area seemingly has food all around; rural farms and in-town fruit trees provide us with ample resources to give everyone healthy and abundant foods, but there are complicated kinks in our food system.

“Community food systems are broken,” Landis said. “Prior to COVID-19, 13% of children in [La Plata County] were food insecure because they either didn’t have access to the type or the quantity of food they needed to sustain their well-being.”

She punctuates the idea of well-being by stating that most food pantries and food banks often overlook healthy foods for cheap calories. A part of her vision for the collective has always been to help provide healthy foods for our more vulnerable population through various means. Just a few: collecting excess fruit from area fruit trees, helping food pantries and banks apply for grants to purchase healthier foods and also connecting area farmers with food banks and pantries to source the produce locally.

“We’re a tiny nonprofit, so we’re just looking for how we can have the most positive impact in the most places...hopefully it has an impact on both the production side as well as the food justice side and ideally on the

Ienvironmental and economic side as well,” Landis said. The Good Food Collective is anything but tiny though. As a collective, this nonprofit has so many working groups and conversing stakeholders under its umbrella, it could make a person dizzy. The agenda includes food security, equity and justice, regional education, convening, coordination and communication and supporting local producers. If there is a broken link in our area’s food system, it’s a safe bet that The Good Food Collective has identified the issue and is working on a solution or soon will. Southwest Colorado is lucky to have The Good Food Collective working toward a more efficient and equitable food system, but we are also lucky to have other nonprofit organizations working to make sure that all humans, young and old, have their basic needs met. Pine River Shares, a nonprofit in Bayfield, has put rubber to pavement for the vulnerable population with their own list of programs. The Bayfield Kids 4 Kids (BK4K) Backpack Food Program for example, provides students at the Bayfield Elementary School and the Bayfield Primary School with backpacks filled with food that was donated by other students. This close-knit system provides an opportunity for kids to learn the importance of giving, while also providing students in need with weekly backpacks of food, enough to last six meals. These programs are just a couple of the diverse organizations that are key to helping our community build better food security and these groups continuously look for donors and volunteers. To get involved and find more information, explore the plethora of organizations that bridge the gap between food systems in Southwest Colorado, using this guide as a starting point.