Boulder Food Rescue

Redistributing Produce and Power

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Expanding Food Rescue Alliance

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Thanks to ReFed’s COVID response funding, our Food Rescue Alliance program, a network of 27 food rescue organizations across the country doing community-based food recovery work, is expanding. 

We are excited to bring on staff to support our efforts to gather and consolidate resources, build curriculum on food procurement best practices, facilitate resource-sharing meetings, support the on-the-ground work of individual members, and conduct outreach to new food rescues across the US.  

We believe that sharing resources, logistics software, values, and a vision will make us stronger and better able to advocate for a more just food system across the entire country, utilizing our collective voice to build power, share power, and make changes from the root of things.

Meet our new FRA Network Coordinator, Lotus Chaney!

Lotus has worked in the health and wellness industry for over 8 years.
She holds 4 certifications in her field, as a Master Gardener, Outdoor Classroom Specialist, Food Literacy Educator, Yoga Instructor and soon to be Nutrition Coach.

She enjoys helping others reap the benefits of nutrition, STEM, and sustainability. She was raised in Los Angeles, CA but currently lives in Decatur, GA with her partner and dog “California Ray of Sunshine” aka Cali. 

Meet our new FRA Outreach Coordinator, Sachin Bangalore!

Sachin recently graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Master of Education in Learning and Design. During his time at Vanderbilt, he designed a map-based educational tool for volunteers at the Nashville Food Project. 

He is passionate about sustainable food systems education and has been a farm apprentice at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.  When Sachin is away from his work desk, he enjoys a good TED binge, playing board games, and practicing the drums. 

Give Support during COVID-19

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Donate now to local food justice

Hi BFR Community,

BFR has been doing community-led resiliency work for a long time – the current crisis only exemplifies why community-led healthy food access is so important. As things progress, we expect our work of going into communities to distribute food will be more and more necessary. The infrastructure we have in place already allows us to bring food to people who are immobile and vulnerable. In order to continue getting healthy food to people who need it most, we need your help.

The community work at Boulder Food Rescue has and always will focus on health equity and mutual aid. Now more than ever we are committed to making sure that those with fewer resources are not more at risk. This food justice movement is about inclusiveness and remembering that our community goes beyond the people we directly know. Community includes our elders, our sick and immobile, our wage-workers, our undocumented people, our LGBTQ population, and everyone more vulnerable to the immediate impact of this pandemic. If some folks have access to food, we should all have access to food. Boulder Food Rescue will ensure that happens. 

Here are the ways you can support BFR currently:
  1. Donate Financially: These funds will go directly to supporting new logistics and the work on the front line over the next few months. In order to be effective and strategic (especially as things continue to escalate), we need to raise $45,000. Funds will go to: 
    1. Supplies needed to ensure the safety and hygiene of the communities we serve within our No Cost Grocery Programs 
    2. Logistics coordination and materials needed for rerouting food 
    3. Supporting Grocery Program Coordinators to create new community-driven models that distribute food to individuals homes
    4. Rapid Response team who covers emergency shifts 
  2. Volunteer: If you are able-bodied and less vulnerable, please help support on an ongoing or one-time basis. We need help with BFR shifts and will do the training online. We also need help delivering sanitization supplies which can be one-time. To volunteer, please email [email protected]
  3. Donate supplies: These are obviously in short stock, but if you have more than you need, you can donate any of these supplies by dropping them off at a drop box directly at our office, located at 5749 Arapaho Ave, Boulder, CO 80303.
    1. Hand Sanitizer
    2. Soap
    3. Plastic bags/reusable grocery bags
    4. Gloves
    5. Toilet Paper
  4. If you want to donate canned goods, please drop them directly with our partner who is creating emergency food boxes:
    1. EFFA
    2. Harvest of Hope

Grocery Program Coordinator Testimonials during Covid-19

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Written and compiled by: Diana M. Alvarado, Participant Coordinator

Diana, Grocery Program Coordinator at Madison affordable housing site, implemented a Grab’N’Go system for pre-bagging and distributing food to her neighbors. This is one of 20 self-governed No Cost Grocery programs at affordable housing sites operating across Boulder.

Based on our relationships of trust and as a result of the emergency situation that prevented us from continuing with the usual redistribution, we invited the Grocery Program Coordinators to adapt their systems to the emerging changes of COVID-19.

We started a communication campaign on a scale that aimed to follow the CDC’s recommendations and created instructions for the Grab’N’Go system.

The communities through the GPCs began to participate more actively in the program sharing expectations and collaborative work. We found out a lot of cooperation from other residents and after a couple of weeks, they started to create their own distribution systems according to the physical spaces at their locations and the best practices that worked for them.

The most interesting thing about this was observing how the GPCs found other leaders in their communities that they leaned on to make sure that all residents could have access to the food delivered by BFR. 

This gives us great satisfaction because it confirms that relationships of trust contributed to the rapid response and accommodation of these distribution systems among residents and participants.

In addition, the participants’ power to engage for a common good that arises in times of crisis,  made communities more involved in the program.

Read the GPC testimonials here

GPC’s Testimonials

High Mar

Grocery Program Coordinators – Pat and Larry Nelson

Today’s ‘Boulder Food Rescue at High Mar’ is more complicated, due to Covid-19, but also more enjoyable.  We have 59 apartments with a total of 71 residents. It used to be a free-for-all with the early birds getting the “worms” –resulting in a smallish “herd mentality”. 

Today, we have a husband & wife volunteer team. First, we clean and sanitize the tables and sweep the floors preparing for the food delivery.  We begin Sunday, at 8:45 am, unloading and arranging the food that came in, put gloves and bags out for pickup (we don’t pre-bag because everyone has different tastes and we never get enough of any one thing to serve all. Now there are a few people who are ready to shop before we are and – one person at a time, in the front door, out the back. We begin, again, one at a time, each person shops and socializes – we talk and laugh and have more fun than legal (which makes it more fun).  And we begin calling each resident and ask them to come down to pick up their grocery items. Same routine…  When everyone has finished, we take deli and some produce to the refrigerator, leave a message on the whiteboard to check the refrigerator, for those who we weren’t able to reach. Then we take refuge and boxes to the trash room – finishing our tour about 2:30 pm.  We sleep really well on Sunday nights.

Monday it’s fresh from the farm, organic lettuce. Our routine is similar and lighter. Calling, messages on the board, and clean up.

Every other Thursday at 11:30 am we receive 40 some boxes from Community Food Share. This is boxed, we unload and bring the boxes into our building, call residents to come and pick up, a few need to be delivered to the individual apartments. We clean up again, ready for the weekend. Our community is getting to be pretty tight, we appreciate one another more and it’s easier and faster to say a thank you.

Boulder Food Rescue, especially Diana Alvarado, we want to thank you for providing so much to our community.

Tantra

Grocery Program Coordinator – Wendi Caller

The NCGP program has been very beneficial to the residents here at Tantra Lake. We have been able to help provide not only good quality food from donations provided by Sprout’s, Great Harvest Bakery, and the Boulder Valley School District. We have been able to provide a small amount of relief from the economic hardship that many communities are experiencing today with the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been able to provide hope and help to many residents, and the program works. We have a constant flow of residents that use the program each week, and the residents that receive assistance from the Grocery Point range from young college students to single adults, to families with children, to elderly citizens. We have a spectacular delivery system in place, and all food that we receive is put to good use. After the residents are served, any remaining food is delivered to attention homes or shelters to help provide additional support to those most in need.

Walnut Place

Grocery Program Coordinator – Mark Cline

As the ‘point person’ at Walnut Place, I am responding to: ‘The differences noticed during the Covid-19 pandemic’.

There has certainly been more need/desire for food options from the residents. In conjunction, BFR, and others, have graciously stepped up!

On the receiving end, it has become much more of a challenge to meet the required protocols. There is less Common Area/Community Spaces available. There is less time to actuate all the stages desired with each varied delivery (size of the delivery, how much space is needed, items in delivery, actual time received, etc.). There is the ‘implementation’ of all the Covid-19 protocols. There are often many smaller details, that need to be addressed, that are different from each individual delivery.

The biggest changes due to the pandemic have been the learning curve, the importance of communication, and the extended time needed on both ends of delivery. I have been blessed with two strong and consistent aides, two others that are fairly regular, and three others that are willing to step in if available.

I am willing to share more experiences, observations, beliefs, details, etc.

Thank you BFR, and all the entities involved.

Broadway West

Grocery Program Coordinator – Liza M. Dombrowsky

Volunteering as a GPC during the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed me to view first-hand the needs of my community. The number of fellow community members utilizing food support through the program has tripled. Whereas there were 6-8 households within my community accessing food distribution prior to the outbreak, there are now 19 households requesting food. This includes 7 families. As community members faced full-time childcare obligations, job loss, and mobility restrictions related to the Governor’s shelter-in-place order, community need for food amplified tremendously. BFR allowed me to assist in reacting quickly to these unforeseen needs. 

It took about two weeks for my community to adjust to protocol changes around food distribution. Sometimes unwanted items would be returned to my apartment door or to the main area where food distribution previously took place in a group setting. Posting signs in the common area provided by BFR helped eliminate misunderstandings and confusion. Including a sign-up sheet for new participants allowed me to continue organizing the program within my community from a distance. Instead of implementing a “grab-and-go” method for food pickup, my daughter and I deliver food bags to households who have signed up. We leave bags at residents’ doors and are able to further minimize community spread that could take place if residents are to arrive to grab a bag. This helps me feel that the program is safe, as there are a number of immune-compromised residents living in our building. 

While we have hunkered down, I have seen this community grow stronger – to forge bonds that were not previously present or were fleeting. I have seen individuals grow closer, ask more of each other, and give more of themselves than I believe we ever had before. This situation has instilled resilience in all, we have come together in ways that have truly made us all better people. There’s a feeling among residents that we’re all looking out for one another. This has been expressed to me through letters, texts, and phone calls. I don’t see this changing in the future, as the collective experience we share cannot be understated. 

Heroes of BFR: Grocery Program Coordinators Organize for Food Justice

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Pictured:  Diana from BHP Madison, Maria from BHP Diagonal Court, Wendi from BHP Tantra

In response to COVID-19, Grocery Program Coordinators continue to organize for food justice and distribute food through their No Cost Grocery Programs.

Wendi from BHP Tantra
“Oh, today was a ginormous success! And we are still delivering food. We got info on more elderly residents in need and can’t leave their homes. Nicky dropped the food off outside my door, and then texted me.

We followed the no contact guidelines and fed 30 households on that order and still had a couple of things left over that we took to Attention Homes.

We were dropping off food to a resident with kids when we were stopped by another resident asking about the food. We are taking some food for her and her family tomorrow. We drop off on the porch. No contact. Thank you.”

Mayra from BHP Broadway East
Mayra receives the text from the courier, leaves the children with her husband and goes out to wait for the food. She sends the first text message to the community warning she will be packing the food in individual bags so they cannot get close until it is finished. In the end, Mayra sends another text advising the residents that they can grab’N’go the bags one at once and leave the space clear for other neighbors.

Liza from BHP Broadway West
“There has been quite an uptick of food resource utilization in our building. There are several ppl out of work and many more staying home. I am currently making 17 grab‘N’go bags for residents each Wednesday and Saturday. Residents are so grateful for the food they are getting.”

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