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THE PROBLEM
Systemic Challenges & Food Inequities
The US food system is highly efficient at distributing mass amounts of food, but is not designed to and does not maximize nor prioritize production, movement, and access to nutritionally-dense foods, particularly to historically and currently marginalized communities.
Inequities in access to nutritious foods are tied to every step in the food supply chain. The challenge is that food, and the people involved in growing and moving it, are not actually valued for their contributions and benefits in every step in that chain. As a system, we have not yet shifted the food supply chain to a true food value chain.
Primary challenges that our work aims to address include:
Compromised Nutrition
Economic insecurity and limited individual purchasing power leads to compromising on nutritious food.
Poor Food Environments
Community food environments promote less nutritious, highly processed food.
Food System Imbalance
Imbalance in the food system resulting from federal supports for certain commodities.
Disconnection
Food system consolidation and lengthy supply chains create a disconnect between people and their food.
Inequities start as early as the seed,
and exist all the way until food reaches the table
From the seed:
of all farmland in the United States is used to grow fruits and vegetables
0
%
to the land and labor:
The average annual income for a farmworker is less than
$
0
The farm industry's annual value is
$
100
billion
of farmland owners are white
0
%
of farmworkers identify themselves as Latino or indigenous
0
%
of farmworkers fall below the poverty line
1/
1
to the table:
is how much it would cost annually for a family of 4 to follow MyPlate dietary guidelines
$12,000-
0
is what lower income households can spend annually on food
$
0
is the minimum wage salary in Colorado as of 2022
$
0
is the estimated salary that a single parent with two young kids living in Colorado would need to be self-sufficient
$
0
Our Solutions
We work to make nutritious food access the norm in Colorado. We partner with organizations and individuals, from farmers and ranchers to consumers. We accomplish this by identifying and pursuing strategic goals with multiple impacts to increase the depth and breadth of systemic change within our food system.
Nutrition Incentives
Increasing Financial Resources for Nutritious Food
We partner with food retailers and growers throughout the state to help individuals experiencing economic insecurity increase their purchasing power to get fruits and vegetables while supporting Colorado growers.
Healthy Food in Institutions
Strengthening Nutritious Food Environments
We partner with organizations that feed our kids in schools. We leverage schools’ significant purchasing power to help make our food system resilient, from growers, to food retailers, to school districts.
Nutrition Education
Providing education to meet unique community needs
We partner with local organizations to provide direct education to families with limited budgets through the Cooking Matters program, which helps families learn how to shop for and cook healthy, affordable meals on a budget.
Farm & Food Policy
Transforming the Food System
We advance a comprehensive policy agenda that supports the transformation of our food system into one that is sustainable, equitable, and health-promoting where access to nutritious food is the norm. Our policy agenda is informed by partners across Colorado, including community coalitions, program partners, local, state and national organizations, and other policy experts.
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