Federal COVID relief funds that helped expand access to school meals for all kids regardless of their ability to pay are set to expire in June, and children's advocates are urging Colorado lawmakers to make that investment permanent.

Ashley Wheeland - director of public policy at Hunger Free Colorado - said in addition to reducing child hunger and food insecurity, a new bill making its way through the Legislature will give food producers across the state access to a reliable customer base, and fair prices for their goods.

"It has some funding for school districts to purchase healthy, local food from our Colorado ranchers and Colorado farmers," said Wheeland. "And make sure that we're investing back into our state as we're investing in food for children."

Some critics of Senate Bill 87 argue that free meals could create government dependency, with others concerned about costs.

Wheeland noted the projected cost would be less than one third of 1% of the state's budget. She added when kids can access healthy, nutritious food, they do better in school, and are less likely to need assistance as adults because they are better equipped to get jobs that pay a living wage.

Many Colorado school districts that made meals available to all students last year saw upwards of 20% more kids getting meals. Proponents say removing application requirements and cash registers from cafeterias gives educators more time to focus on learning.

Wheeland said the program can also put an end to lunch-line shaming that low-income kids experience.

"They feel shamed and stigmatized when they have to get in the lunch line and show a card," said Wheeland. "We've had families who testified at the committee that their child came home with a number written on their arm of what the family owed the school for school meals."

She said the program should help families struggling with Colorado's rising cost of living by ending school lunch debt.

The measure also aims to address workforce shortages by increasing pay for staff that prepare and serve meals, and offers resources to move away from pre-packaged and processed foods.

SB 87 cleared the Senate's Education Committee with bipartisan support, and is now under review by Appropriations.

As Colorado's fall harvest kicks into high gear, people participating in SNAP, the program formerly known as food stamps, can now get up to $60 per month added back to their EBT cards when they purchase fruits and vegetables at participating outlets, including farmer's markets.

MacKenzie Sehlke, executive director of Boulder County Farmers Markets, said the new pilot program makes it easier for more families to bring home locally-grown fruits and vegetables, and strengthen local food systems.

"These programs really allow families to access fresh produce," Sehlke explained. "It gives them some more parity in the market so that they can shop for those staples that their families want and need. And it also really supports local producers."

Colorado is one of three states to win U.S. Department of Agriculture grants to launch the pilot program, known as Colorado SNAP Produce Bonus. SNAP participants do not have to sign up, they just have to purchase healthy foods to get reimbursed up to $20 per transaction. So far, 34 farmers markets, food hubs and retail locations across the state offer the program directed by the Colorado Department of Human Services and Nourish Colorado.

The Valley Roots Food Hub based in the San Luis Valley connects local farmers and ranchers to SNAP and other customers through Colorado Supported Agriculture subscriptions, wholesale distribution and an online grocery store.

Al Stone, markets manager for the Valley Roots Food Hub, said SNAP participants can get produce, eggs and other staples, and tap Produce Bonus EBT dollars at their Mosca warehouse without paying a membership fee.

"You can buy from us as often or as little as you want," Stone noted. "Some folks buy from us on a weekly basis, and we're their main grocery store. They really love our service because we also offer home delivery."

Sehlke pointed out farmers markets allow customers to meet and build relationships with the people who grow the nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables they take home. She added they are family friendly events with lots to see, do, smell and taste.

"We offer local music at our farmer's markets," Sehlke emphasized. "We offer a variety of kids and family programming, including art-focused programming."


get more stories like this via email

By Daniel Breen and Josie Lenora for Little Rock Public Radio.
Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Arkansas News Service reporting for the Little Rock Public Radio-Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation-Public News Service Collaboration.

Several parts of Little Rock can be classified as “food deserts,” or neighborhoods that don't have easy access to a grocery store. Now, city officials are considering a new, at least to Little Rock, solution; a mobile grocery store.

If you stand at the intersection of Chenal Parkway and Bowman Road in west Little Rock, next to Best Buy and The Purple Cow, you’re within a mile of five grocery stores: Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Walmart, Sam's Club and a newly-minted Aldi.

But some streets in Little Rock aren’t within a mile of any grocery store. That’s called a food desert, and most of them are in lower-income neighborhoods of central and southwest Little Rock.

Being a mile away from a store may not seem like much, but if you have mobility challenges, or you're low on money, this mile can mean the difference between eating and being hungry.

Virgil Miller is on the Little Rock City Board of Directors. He represents Ward One, which covers downtown and encompasses several food deserts. Miller says he’s talked with constituents who come to him to ask: why am I not near a grocery store?

“Because, in the past, there were several grocery stores in the area. They’ve all closed and relocated,” Miller said.

At their core, grocery stores are businesses. They have to turn a profit, and companies say there just isn't a lot of money to be made in some of these neighborhoods. When the Kroger on Colonel Glenn Road closed in 2022, a representative from the company told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the store had “lost significant profit for many years and if left open, the losses are projected to get even worse going forward.”

Some neighborhoods are what’s called a food swamp. This means they may be near a McDonald’s or a convenience store, but the quality of food there is so low it can cause health problems down the line.

Little Rock Vice Mayor Kathy Webb has spent much of her career working to combat food deserts, serving on a state food desert task force and as executive director of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. What most people wanted was a brick-and-mortar store; but, when the team looked at what other communities were doing to fix the food desert problem, she realized that just building a grocery store doesn't always work.

“A nonprofit opened a grocery store in Baltimore, and we were very excited about it… it went out of business,” she said.

Webb said the grocery store was designed by consultants who had success in building supermarkets in suburban areas, but not ones in the inner city.

“They didn’t talk to the people in the neighborhood to find out what they wanted. They didn’t try to become part of the neighborhood.”

Both Miller and Webb heard that Memphis came up with a creative way to combat the food desert problem. And it seemed to work better.

“A mobile grocery store. It’s almost like an 18-wheeler that has been adapted to have an aisle in the middle of it, and on each side they have food,” Miller said.

The mobile grocery store has fresh produce and other staples. Sometimes, customers can order things on request. They move around neighborhoods stopping at two locations a day. Webb and Miller went on a “field trip” to see it in person.

“The nonprofit had developed relationships with the residents… and it’s much more than just a store,” Miller said.

The hope now is to bring a mobile grocery store like this to Little Rock. But the concept isn’t entirely new to the city.

Paul Kroger–no relation to the grocery store chain–is executive director of Vine & Village, a nonprofit based in Little Rock’s University District. They operate a weekly food distribution program called The Orchard, which serves hundreds of families and unsheltered people living in the 72204 ZIP code.

“People start lining up at about 7 in the morning back here with vehicles, and we start distributing at 1. The line will go serpentining through the parking lot like several blocks long,” he said. “We have a whole team of people out here treating it like an assembly line, giving them different things.”

Each Tuesday, a small army of volunteers comes in to run the drive-up program. But food is constantly coming in; Kroger says they keep as much as a quarter-million pounds of food and other household items on hand at any given time, donated from food banks, grocery stores and restaurants. But, Kroger says they’re not your typical food bank.

“Generally you get a box of food, mostly shelf-stable items, but here that’s the minority of what you get. The vast majority, maybe four or five boxes, 40 to 70 pounds each, of fresh fruit, vegetables, high-quality protein, that’s the emphasis here,” he said.

Back in 2016, then-Mayor Mark Stodola came to Vine & Village, asking them for help with the city’s food desert problem. Stodola’s solution sounds familiar–use an old city bus to distribute food to people who can’t travel to get it.

For several years, the bus, dubbed the Fresh2You Mobile Market, made the rounds of all public housing complexes in Little Rock and North Little Rock. They weren’t just focused on alleviating hunger, but ensuring that people were getting healthy, nutritious food in a sustainable way. Kroger says they offered free samples and recipe cards to customers, much like a traditional grocery store.

“So whatever the bus had for that day, they could pick up those items and they could have already tasted something. Could be a smoothie, could be a fresh salad, something that was pretty simple to do but would really be, not only healthy, but it’s gotta be tantalizing to your taste buds.”

Initially, they charged money and accepted public assistance benefits, but ultimately Kroger says they stopped charging.

“Not being able to really provide the volume of food that people really needed to change the course of their nutritional intake, it was just important that we give it for free. So that’s what we’d been doing for the last number of years until we were shut down by the pandemic,” Kroger said.

The Fresh2You Mobile Market pivoted during the COVID-19 pandemic, partnering with World Central Kitchen to distribute hot meals in place of school breakfasts and lunches. But Kroger says their equipment is aging, and the future of Fresh2You is uncertain.

He’s applying for a grant to buy a new bus, which will then likely focus on delivering food to two new micro home villages currently under construction, which will provide temporary housing to people experiencing chronic homelessness.

But even if the city does end up operating a mobile grocery store, as Kroger found out, the cost of food will remain a concern. Marquis Willis is the Chief Data Officer for the City of Little Rock, and has done research on local people living in food deserts. It showed that, yes, transportation was an issue, but there was a larger issue that's harder to solve.

“The bigger issue that we noticed, 63% of our respondents said that the cost of food was a bigger issue,” he said.

Vice Mayor Kathy Webb said that with all the money in the world she would approach the problem differently. She would build a lot of not-for-profit grocery stores and pay-what-you-want restaurants.

But money is an issue. So, she says, hopefully the mobile grocery store will go forward. Right now, it's in the procurement phase with plans to be finalized in the future.


Daniel Breen and Josie Lenora wrote this article for Little Rock Public Radio.


get more stories like this via email

A New York City nonprofit is helping communities fight food insecurity.

Rethink Food began in 2017 with the mission of taking excess food from top restaurants such as Eleven Madison Park to be redistributed to food-insecure communities across the city. Despite declines, post-pandemic food insecurity in the city remains high as one in nine families doesn't often have enough to eat.

Matt Jozwiak, founder and CEO of Rethink Food, said the organization filled a unique niche during the pandemic.

"There's not a lot of nonprofits that are working with, like, a soul-food restaurant in Harlem and a community center down the street," Jozwiak pointed out. "We were really ready and prepared even before the lockdown. We put together a plan to basically grant capital resources to small businesses to make meals for local community centers."

As beneficial as the group's work is, Jozwiak acknowledged some neighborhoods do not care for certain meals. He noted some areas might not care for couscous while others are not big on dairy-based dishes. The feedback has helped guide Rethink Food's work. He added they are branching out to work in other areas, such as developing medically tailored meals.

Beyond food excess, Rethink Food is looking to see how it can improve food procurement in New York City. The city has been seeking out ways to diversify its food procurement systems.

Ken Baker, culinary director for the group, said Rethink Food and the coalition of primarily independent, minority, women-owned restaurants they work with can do it.

"We know restaurants run on tight margins; us being the primary cudgel that holds that capacity in place, and then we subcontract out that capacity to restaurant partners," Baker explained. "(It) gives them a meaningful way to have a stakehold in their community and demonstrate their ability to compete with your big players."

The challenge in doing it is lacking trust in getting paid on time by the city. Reports showed the number of procurement contracts registered late has grown since 2021. For the first half of 2024, 77% of contracts were registered late, resulting in payment delays for numerous businesses.