The Denver Food Access Initiative grew out of advocacy for grocery stores carried out under the the Park Hill Thriving Communities Initiative. When efforts at the neighborhood level were unsuccessful in securing a grocery store for Park Hill, partners recognized that in order to move forward we needed to set policy that encouraged grocery retail development in Denver's needy communities. Denver Healthy People created a new partnership with The Food Trust, funded by the Colorado Health Foundation, to find innovative ways for encouraging healthy food retail development in Denver. The goal is to eliminate "food deserts" and increase access to grocery stores for all of Denver’s residents. The effort is based on successes across the country that have been led by The Food Trust.
Description of the program in PDF
As part of the Healthy Food Access Initiative Denver Healthy People established the Denver Food Access Task Force, which will set policy recommendations for grocery expansion in Denver.
- A partnership that formed under the Denver Healthy Food Access Initiative saw the opening of the Colorado Ranch Market summer of 2010 in Denver’s Chaffee Park neighborhood, ensuring continued access to a grocery store for residents. Congratulations to Leevers Supermarkets and to the Denver Department of Economic Development for seeing this new store opening!