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Food is the foundation for a happy, healthy life. Hunger can be found everywhere – often where you least expect it. The homeless population represents only about 10% of our food recipients. The rest? Everyday people like low-wage workers, children, seniors on fixed incomes and individuals with health issues.

We’re working to feed them all.

• $1 helps provide 4 meals for our community
• $0.96 of each dollar goes directly to programs
• Food Bank of the Rockies has seen 100% increase in need since the pandemic’s outbreak.
• But this is even higher for some communities, such as Mountain/Ski areas – many people there work for resorts creating a bigger impact.
• Agencies across Colorado have seen a surge in need – with many reporting up to 5x more clients needing food assistance.  
• More than one-third of people seeking help with food have never previously sought help.
• Donations from our Grocery Rescue program initially dropped by 18 percent. This requires us to purchase more food to meet the increased need.
• Due the same supply chain challenges consumers are seeing in grocery stores, up to 20% of food that Food Bank of the Rockies is ordering is not arriving. Deliveries are being delayed by weeks or outright canceled. And we are spending 40% more per pound on food than previously.
• Plus, there has been an increase in cost for the food we purchase since we are now competing with retailers.
  Despite supply chain issues and decreased food donations from retail and manufacturers, overall food distribution is up 40%. This number will continue to increase in coming weeks.
• Food Bank of the Rockies is needing to purchase more food than ever before. When supply chain challenges dissipate, we expect continued purchasing at triple previous levels, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, to meet the unprecedented needs.
• A conservative estimate is that Food Bank of the Rockies will need $16 million to respond to the COVID-19 crisis over the six months.    
• We expect some relief from state and federal funds, but it simply won’t be enough to meet the cost of keeping our citizens fed. We must act now and we must act aggressively. 
• We are working with new partners to meet this surge, including early-learning centers and health-care providers – like Dispatch Health and Rose Medical.
• We are distributing more than 14,000 Totes of Hope to children weekly.
• We are also providing grocery boxes at 24 Denver Public Schools meal sites through our partnership with Food for Thought.
• Nearly half of people served by Food Bank of the Rockies are children.
• We are expanding home-delivery food boxes to hundreds of older adults and providing needed help while enabling them to stay safely at home. 
• While roughly one-third of our food pantry partners have temporarily ceased operations, our own mobile pantries and some pantry partners are serving two to five times previous numbers of clients.