Healthy Food for Denver's Kids Grantees

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver

2020 Project: HFDK's support will allow Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver to expand our food services to youth who face food insecurity. By providing kids with additional daily meals and snacks throughout the summer and every weekend year-round, this partnership - assisted by Food Bank of the Rockies - will provide well over 100,000 healthy meals to Denver kids.

2021-2024 Project: Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver will improve and increase food-related services for our Denver Club members. Like all kids, Club members are full of joy and dreams, and want to do their best. Due to systemic and other inequities, though, many Clubs members face food insecurity and a lack of knowledge around nutrition due to systemic inequities. Of our kids, 87% qualify for free or reduced lunch and half comes from homes earning less than $22,000/year. BGCMD will help overcome these inequities by offering targeted and robust healthy food supports including daily meals and snacks, take-home healthy food boxes, nutrition education, and support enrolling families in public food benefits like SNAP and WIC. This will be achieved through funds that will allow us to hire a Health Coordinator, support staff salaries, purchase food and equipment, train staff, pay for partner provided programming, and more. 

Bright by Text

2022-2024 Project: Support from HFDK enables Bright by Text to increase Denver families’ awareness, knowledge, and connection to healthy food resources and educational programs. Through partnerships with organizations providing food distribution, nutrition education, and enrollment in federal nutrition assistance programs, Bright by Text connects over 3,000 caregivers of young children subscribed to the free texting service with information about programs available in their community. This grant funds the scaling of the texting service for Denver community food and nutrition focused organizations and expanding reach to more families.

Clayton Early Learning

2022-2024 Project: Clayton Early Learning is proud to partner with HFDK in three critical areas that promote health and wellness through good nutrition for young children and their families.  

Our Seed to Stomach initiative will develop, implement, and market an innovative and interactive curriculum that will immerse children and families in the practice of urban gardening as a sustainable source of healthy food, instilling lifelong wellbeing practices for optimal health through good nutrition.

 The Clayton Cares Market – our innovation approach to addressing food insecurity with dignity and choice, will be expanded to serve more families at Clayton and in the community

Clayton Early Learning will also increase our existing partnership with Denver Health WIC to offer enhanced enrollment resources and maximize nutrition support for women and young children in our community.

Colorado Circles for Change

2020-2023 Project: The HFDK funds will be used to provide nutritious meals on site and for delivery of food packages to youth impacted by violence and the criminal justice system in under resourced communities. Colorado Circles for Change is committed to feeding Denver's most vulnerable youth including youth of color, immigrants, and refugees.

 Commún

2021-2024 Project: In partnership with HFDK, Commún receives funding for three food programs: community food share, gardens, and trainings and power building. We are in the middle of a three-year process to transition multiple community food banks to combine into a community led food hub designed and directed by residents who experience food insecurity. Our garden program is led by a community leader and expert and supports 23 gardeners and their families in accessing land, securing seeds and seedlings, and maintaining their gardens. All of the food grown goes directly to the gardeners' families and neighbors. HFDK funding increases access to healthy food for Denver's kids by providing food, local urban gardening opportunities, and training in conjunction with a collective process to address the whole person and the root causes of hunger. This funding allows small food shares in Southwest Denver to work with people experiencing food insecurity to co-design a long-term food system for our community that achieves food sovereignty.

 Denver Food Rescue

2020-2023 Project: Denver Food Rescue's HFDK grant helps fund 20 No Cost Grocery Programs across the Denver area that have been co-created with the communities they serve. This grant gives us the funding needed to source food, offer volunteer stipends, provide supplies, infrastructure, and other support to help these programs distribute food to the community with fewer barriers.  The HFDK grant also funds our Self Sufficiency and Nutrition in the Kitchen program, teaching students in first through eighth grades about cooking, nutrition, food production and food waste, and more. This provides students with tangible skills to help them provide themselves and their families with fresh and delicious meals.

2021-2024 Project: Denver Food Rescue has a second HFDK grant with which they are able to provide a new free delivery program. This program, Healthy Choice Food Box, has been able to deliver fresh monthly produce from East Denver Food Hub to 300 families throughout Denver. Each month families have the option to choose foods that are culturally relevant. The next year of the program is expected to grow to 600 families.

Denver Health in partnership with Colorado WIC

2021-2024 Project: Evidence strongly suggests that participation in federal nutrition programs like WIC and SNAP improves health outcomes for pregnant women, children, and families.  The program that HFDK funds, specialized co-enrollment, will improve Denver’s suboptimal enrollment rates of these nutrition programs and reduce overall food insecurity in households with children by ensuring that eligible families become and stay enrolled in food assistance programs that increase food and economic security. This project will be an extension and expansion of a pilot project with WIC at Denver Health. This proposal will enable patients to be enrolled in and receive WIC services during pediatric and OB/GYN appointments at several Denver Health outpatient clinic locations including Eastside, Montbello, Westside, Webb Pediatrics, and Pena Clinic.

Denver Housing Authority in partnership with Youth Employment Academy

2021-2024 Project: With the support of the Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids, Denver Housing Authority (DHA) in partnership with the Youth Employment Academy (YEA) will address food insecurity in Southwest Denver through education, food distribution, and youth leadership in horticulture. YEA will be providing nutrition and healthy cooking classes, distributing healthy snacks to youth, and running a youth led "Vegetable Artscape" Project. The nutrition and healthy food classes aim to change the eating habits of low-income families in collaboration with the Osage Cafe. The healthy snacks will be distributed through Decatur Fresh, an affordable, fresh, and international marketplace in the Sun Valley neighborhood and the Osage Café & Mercado, an affordable, fresh marketplace in the Mariposa neighborhood. In the "Vegetable Artscape" project, youth will work with Denver Botanic Gardens to learn about the urban farming process and what vegetables are being grown in the Sun Valley neighborhood. The youth will also work with a local artist to create an educational and cultural pathway leading to the urban farm to highlight the cultural diversity of the Sun Valley neighborhood.

Denver Inner City Parish

2021-2024 Project: It is well documented that youth and families of color, living in poverty are highly likely to have food-related health complications such as heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity because of their socio-economic conditions at some point in their lives. The Denver Inner City Parish will utilize HFDK funds to combat this issue with the Greens-N-Grains (GNG) Community Nutrition Food Truck and the Veggie RX Nutrition Education Program. The GNG program will distribute nutritious meals to youth in low food access areas across Denver, partnering with schools, afterschool programs, sporting events, and other community gatherings. The Veggie RX Program utilizes health education, cooking demos, gardening, and food awareness/knowledge to educate youth and families about healthy living. By strengthening participants' capacity to eat and cook healthy meals, plan, and budget for purchasing nutritious foods, understand nutrition labeling, and make empowered, healthy decisions about their diets/eating habits at a young age; both programs aim to increase participants healthy habits and promote active lifestyles. Each year, this program will serve meals and provide mobile education to 2,500 unique youth and provide hands-on nutrition and cooking classes to over 400 unique youth and their families.

Denver Juvenile Services Center, Denver Public Safety Youth Programs 

 2021-2024 Project: Denver Public Safety Youth Programs provides educational and vocational support services to Denver's justice-involved youth between the ages of 14-18. The goal of this specific project is to provide meaningful work experience and education in partnership with The Urban Farm in topics including healthy eating, cooking, farm business planning, horticultural skills, greenhouse management, and livestock care. The participating youth would be enrolled in 4 days of education and hands-on skill building per week for a minimum of 10 weeks from 9-4 pm each day; there would be 4-5 youth cohorts served per year. The youth would be directly involved in the development and  management of small-scale livestock (poultry, goats, and sheep) and horticultural production in the City of Denver. The produce and animal products would be distributed to the local community on a sliding scale basis, further participants of the program would also receive a share of the food produced on a weekly basis. This program aims to provide critical and meaningful life skills through farm education, access to healthy food, and opportunities for restorative justice for some of Denver's most at-risk youth, while positively impacting the larger community through healthy food distribution.

Denver Public Library

2020-2023 Project: The HFDK grant will allow us to provide over 65,000 healthy snacks to our youth at fourteen branch locations. In addition, it provides us the opportunity to hire youth assistants from the communities where we will be distributing snacks.

2021-2023 Project: The Denver Public Library (DPL) will be using the HFDK funds to distribute food boxes with healthy foods to youth and their families. To reduce food insecurity in households with children in Denver, DPL will distribute over 15,000 food boxes by the end of July 2023 at fourteen branch locations.

 Denver Public Schools Career and College Success

2020-2023 Project: The Denver Public Schools Career and College Success (CCS) team will use the HDFK funds to fill a gap in programs that focus on the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources industries. They will partner with Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ), a New York City-based nonprofit, to create a student-built and operated classroom hydroponic farm at Bruce Randolph School. The hydroponic farm will ensure students recognize food justice and insecurity, understand health and nutrition, actively engage in STEM education and build a pathway to future income -- all while providing fresh and affordable produce to both students and their community through urban farming, food preparation and food preservation.

 Denver Public Schools: Food and Nutrition Services

2020-2021 Project: DPS will build a 1-acre greenhouse to grow salad bowl items for Denver students who participate in the school lunch program. When the greenhouse is financially and operationally sustainable, we will launch an urban agriculture Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway for students and provide workforce development opportunities for students and adults.

2021-2024 Project: In order to increase the number of daily lunches served to DPS students we need to improve the quality of our meals made at school.  In order to improve the meal quality, we must train all (850) kitchen employees and managers are basic culinary skills so that we serve consistent, high-quality, tasty and nutritious school meals.  This proposal will help to fund the professional training program created and executed by a national organization, Brigaid, for all Food and Nutrition Services kitchen workers and managers.

Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design

2020-2023 Project: The funding will be used to implement a nutrition education program embedded into the physical education curriculum and a Youth Food Leadership program in the school's elective. The program will incorporate a field trip to Sprout City Farms and a variety of community presenters with the goal of providing students with the opportunity to learn the interdependence of physical health, nutrition, and healthy choices, in addition to empowering students with leadership opportunities to teach about access to healthy food.

Denver Urban Gardens

2020-2023 Project: Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) will be using the funds to expand our Growing Gardeners Initiative working primarily in Title 1 schools in DPS and within the larger Denver community. The initiative focuses on providing teacher training, programming and garden support for two key audience segments: early childhood and high school. DUG is building its capacity in working with early childhood educators to promote and encourage the integration of garden education as well as healthy eating and cooking in the classroom in partnership with Slow Food Denver.  At the high school level, DUG's focus shifts towards educating teens about food justice and community action through urban gardening in partnership with An Ounce of Nutrition.  DUG's Grow-a-Garden program and the network of DUG Community Gardens help to expand DUG's reach out to Denver families, lowering barriers to growing healthy food and making it more accessible with the support of resources, seeds and seedlings, continuing education, and community outreach.

Early Excellence Program of Denver

2021-2024 Project: Early Excellence would like to implement a new food-based educational program for its 80 under-served students, ages 2.5 - 5 years old and their families. The Early Excellence Program of Denver is looking forward to this new grant opportunity with HFDK that will allow for a fresh new start to implementing a family-friendly health and nutrition educational program that incorporates healthy activities, healthy foods and teaching our young children and their families the life-long benefits of eating healthy and personal fitness for not only today, but for years to come.

Ekar Farm

2021-2024 Project: Growing and distributing farm fresh produce, and experiential education, to Denver's youth and families. Receiving HFDK funds means Ekar can ensure that tens of thousands of pounds of fresh, local, nutrient-dense food can be grown and distributed to our most vulnerable youth. These funds put farm-food systems-school partnerships to work building capacity for local schools and other service providers to reach more families than ever with produce, nutrition information, and hands-on food and food system education.

Focus Points Family Resource Center

2022-2024 Project: Huerta Urbana 2Gen Farm Incubator is a community-built social enterprise at Focus Points Family Resource Center providing economic opportunity through urban agriculture. The program opens opportunities for participants to get better-paying jobs and start their own businesses in the industry while earning stipends to support their families. In partnership with our Early Childhood Programs, PAT and HIPPY, Huerta will be distributing weekly, CACFP-guided ‘Bounty Boxes’ to each of the 234 children aged 0-5 in those programs by growing produce on our farm here at Focus Points and aggregating other food items from co-operatively owned and operated farms around Colorado. In addition to the nutrition, we will be providing education and resources for parents on how to prepare and enjoy the produce provided.

Food for Thought Denver

2020-2023 Project: Food for Thought (FFT) will provide PowerSacks to children in Title 1 schools in Denver to eliminate weekend childhood hunger. FFT will order food from Food Bank of the Rockies in order to provide enough food to feed two meals to a family of four. Each PowerSack includes between 9–13 nonperishable items, including foods that children can prepare themselves if no adult is able to cook.

FrontLine Farming

2022-2024 Project: HFDK's support will allow FrontLine farming to create expanded educational opportunities to youth in our target areas. The expanded programming activities will include a minimum of 20 educational presentations for youth with a focus on ages 0-5, monthly on-site garden classes, the creation of a community garden with programming at an anchor institution for the Black community in Denver, and additional staffing to enroll and directly connect families to Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs. We will also be able to engage small children with nutritious food by providing healthy snacks and meals at our youth classes.

Hunger Free Colorado

2022-2024 Project: HFDK funds will support Hunger Free Colorado's outreach to connect families and children to food assistance such as SNAP, WIC, school meals, summer meals and more. These efforts include Hunger Free Colorado's Food Resource Hotline, Mobile Outreach to provide face-to-face support and assistance in partnership with other community organizations, and supporting SNAP PEAS (Partners Engaging in Application Services) partners including community-based organizations and government agencies in assisting families to apply for SNAP.

Jovial Concepts

2021-2024 Project: Jovial’s primary purpose with this funding is to educate Denver’s kids on how to avert hunger, reduce waste and eat healthy through 1) garden programs, 2) cooking and nutrition classes, 3) sustainable food education classes, 4) outreach and sign up for federal food assistance programs and 5) school youth garden clubs. In addition, Jovial distributes food directly to Denver’s kids through summer meals, and organic garden produce. We will increase food distribution for families with continuing needs through an innovative partnership with the Co-Op at 1st that will provide a meal subscription Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) food model that features healthy eating from organic produce and recipes from minority chefs who will disseminate educational recipes from around the world. We will also distribute formula and food to families with children ages 0-5 in our Baby Day program.

Kaizen Food Rescue

2021-2024 Project: Our proposed activities all revolve around a central idea: how can we get more healthy food, and more healthy food experiences, to our youth? Your grant will fund a project that will procure and grow healthy food for our community. Though there are many activities within this proposal that will lead to this goal, the program is itself simple. Through urban gardening and agriculture, local food procurement, summer kids meals, youth teams, and community leaders, your grant will allow us to augment our hugely successful mobile food share with locally grown food. HFDK funds is providing Kaizen Food Rescue the opportunity to move towards our goal of food sovereignty and simultaneously empower impacted Denver youths in the process.

Lifespan Local - Southwest Food Coalition

2022-2024 Project: The Southwest Food Coalition, lead by Lifespan Local, will address food insecurity in families with youth 0-5 through several methods. We will increase the amount of food available at our partner food pantries. Connect youth 0-5 to existing community food resources and solicit feedback from families to improve food resources. Provide healthy and culturally appropriate food directly to ECE’s. Lastly, we will provide food benefits education and enrollment at ECE’s.   

Metro Caring

2020-2023 Project: Funds from HFDK will support Metro Caring’s Kidz in the Kitchen family nutrition education program, as well as direct food distribution to thousands of families throughout the next year. During this health and economic pandemic, when three times the normal number of families are in need of immediate food assistance, these funds will help families in our Denver community to access healthy, nutritious food relevant to their cultures and diets. 

2022-2024 Project: Metro Caring meets the immediate needs of families in the community by offering free, fresh, healthy foods in its Fresh Foods Market, open Monday through Friday by appointment. However, it also works in prevention and intervention by offering programming co-created with members of the community who live with low incomes. The Metro Caring Market is the entry-point to programs and services that help address factors connected to food insecurity for low-income families.  As an expansion of the Metro Caring Nutrition Program's Healthy Tastings, and its collaboration with the Urban Agriculture program "Lettuce Be Kids"; recipes, food lists and take-home garden packages focused on brain, bone and soft tissue development, and immune system support will be provided with a focus on families with children 0-5. Additionally, the new iteration of the Metro Caring Community Connector Program that historically provided support for community members to access supplementary resources, will have a focus on families of children aged 0-5, and enrollment in SNAP and other support programs.

Metro Ministries, Inc

2020-2022 Project: On a weekly basis, Metro Ministries, in partnership with Denver Housing Authority (DHA) and Colorado Feeding Kids (CFK), will visit each of the DHA properties that DHA has identified containing children in need of healthy and nutritional food. Metro Ministries will provide two CFK family meal packs for each identified child. In cooperation with DHA, the meals will be distributed onsite to the children.

Mile High 360

2020-2023 Project: Mile High 360 will use HFDK funds to truly formalize our nutritional educational programming and family engagement through cuisine with credentialed partners. We will also have a family liaison to work extensively with families on food security through the utilization of community and public resources.

Monarch Montessori

2021-2024 Project: First Steps at Monarch Montessori's proposal will directly benefit 300 children in Northeast Denver. Our program educates youth, provides nutritious meals to students and boosts revenue to local food suppliers. HFDK grant money will support the student gardening program, daily school lunch, monthly food distribution and classes in gardening and cooking. These services will alleviate school-day hunger, provide healthy food year-round at home for students, and introduce skills essential to long-term healthy living.

Montbello Organizing Committee

2020-2023 Project: The FreshLo Farm-School Network – Healthy Food for Montbello Kids project is a three-year collaborative impact project among several local schools and nonprofit organizations that have come together to address the shared mission to work with children and youth to grow food for their community, teach them where their food comes from, and work with families to change nutritional habits and consumption patterns. The FreshLo Farm-School Network – Healthy Food for Montbello Kids is premised on an assumption that multiple efforts must work in concert to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of community-level efforts to reduce food insecurity and ensure that children and their families have access to affordable, healthy food.

North School

2020-2023 Project: The HFDK funds will be used to help increase student awareness around school and community polices on unhealthy/healthy eating, food availability, food culture and media, and personal health choices such as economics, neighborhood and education.

Office of Children's Affairs

2022-2024 Project: The Office of Children's Affairs (OCA) will expand of Tasty Food: where Denver youth eat free.  Year-round, in approximately 50 locations across Denver, children ages 3 through 18 will enjoy nutritious and culturally responsive breakfasts, lunches, snacks and suppers. OCA will also train and mentor other organizations to increase the number of CACFP and SFSP sites and sponsors. Lastly, in partnership with Denver Department of Human Services, OCA will hire an onsite SNAP Enrollment Specialist to provide SNAP enrollment services and food resource information to families at Tasty Food locations.

Re:Vision

2020-2023 Project: Re:Vision was founded in 2007, working in the Westwood neighborhood - one of Denver's most food insecure - to cultivate a community food system, primarily through teaching families how to grow their own food in their home gardens. With Healthy Food for Denver Kids, Re:Vision will work closely with community partners to create curriculum around food justice, health equity and the local food system, while using food as a lens to explore culture and promote discovery and emotional well-being for children in Southwest Denver. 

2021-2023 Project: Denver Health's Westside Clinic and Re:Vision will partner and build on the Community Shared Agriculture Program started by Sprout City Farms last year. Families will be screened for food insecurity, and those who qualify will receive Community Shared Agriculture boxes from Re:Vision's Urban Farm delivered directly to their door via Bondadosa. This program seeks to build a holistic, local, and culturally relevant system of health, where no matter your income level, you can have access locally grown food and become actively involved in your own health. 

Sewall Child Development Center, Inc.

2021-2024 Project: Sewall’s proposal is focused on improving access to nutritious, culturally responsive foods and nutrition education for young children and their families. Nutrition security is essential in improving the child’s educational outcomes and school readiness. Healthy food access and family food-based education programs are essential for high-quality early childhood education programs that ensure Denver's youth have a solid foundation for their social emotional and academic success. Sewall is proud to partner with HFDK to help to ensure that no Denver child goes hungry.

Sisters of Colorado United for Education

2021-2024 Project: We are expanding to the Denver Northeast Park Hill neighborhood and have a collaboration with Consumption Literacy Project who is currently working in the Montbello area to develop native gardens and increase BIPOC food access. We also are a long-time partner with Woodbine (WILD-I) ecology center that supports indigenous ecology practices and stewardship of the land. We will be training Promotores de Salud in Park Hill, and with our partnerships, will increase youth engagement with understanding and becoming a part of the food systems in Denver to increase healthy food choices and access. SOCUE and Promotores have been developing community voices and urban farming projects for improving health for its members. We know that historical trauma is a key element of the process for healing community. We believe that healing can begin in the roots for the soil and when people cultivate their own food, the medicine has a way of working its magic and children become the best example for how to coexist.

Slow Food Denver

2021-2023 Project: Our garden and taste education classes through our Lil’ Sprouts and Seed to Plate programs in schools across the Denver Metro area, increase nutritional food security in Denver. Students who take our classes get a weekly meal with fresh local produce and learn healthy eating habits. They then bring their knowledge into their homes, inspiring siblings and family members to learn about their food systems and cook more nutritious food. Our interactive and multi-faceted classes transform children from passive food consumers to creators.  We have increased the number of students served, schools served, and the amount of meals provided. As we continue to expand our program, we are able to reach more Denver youth.

South High School Food Pantry

2020 Project: Denver South High School’s Food Pantry provides a consistent source of fresh, healthy food to meet the basic nutritional needs of its students and families so that no student goes to bed hungry due to lack of access to food. A top priority is providing fresh produce, dairy, meat and other protein, and culturally relevant food on a weekly basis. 

Sprout City Farms

2020-2023 Project: Sprout City Farms is partnering with Denver Health to leverage the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and pediatric care network to couple food access solutions and healthy food education with medical care. We have established a program to offer fresh, organically grown food from local farms to refugee families enrolled in WIC, as well as pediatric patients screened for food insecurity, throughout the Colorado harvest season (June through October). Lowry Clinic is the most diverse clinic in Denver, and families will receive interpretation and translation of nutrition education materials in their preferred languages in addition to fresh produce each week. 

Stedman Elementary School

2020-2023 Project: HFDK funds will be used to provide a healthy snack to every student every day at school and to conduct activities in the garden related to health and nutrition education. 

Stigma

2021-2024 Project: We procure meat, dairy, produce and other healthy food from Colorado farmers, ranchers, and distributors. We provide the healthy food to food pantries supporting Denver Public Schools. We are connecting Colorado's farmers and ranchers directly to the students in Denver Public Schools who need help with food security and nutrition the most. The Healthy Food for Denver's Kids grant supports our work and allows us to create community and provide food with dignity. If we hope to break the cycle of hunger, we must first crush the stigma.

STRIVE Prep - SMART

2020-2023 Project: Strive Prep - SMART will work with Big Green to install a Learning Garden at our school to implement food literacy programs. SMART wants to increase students’ knowledge around healthy food choices and develop skills to grow, harvest, and cook those healthy foods. Students will have opportunities to learn health and nutrition information, practice skills, and share what they learned through the Learning Garden curriculum.

 
Sun Valley Kitchen & Community Center

2020-2023 Project: The HFDK funds will provide support for our Youth Employment Professional Development, Youth Enrichment, and No-Cost Grocery Programs. The funding will allow us to expand and deepen the impact and reach of each of those programs. The HFDK funds will also support the weeknight dinners we prepare and serve for youth in our Sun Valley neighborhood, in partnership with Sun Valley Youth Center.

The GrowHaus

2020-2023 Project: Funding from HFDK will provide immediate hunger relief to youth and families living in Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, while supporting long-term, community-led solutions to food justice. Families are able to access a no-cost or low-cost food box depending on their needs and connect with programming related to growing and cooking healthy food. Importantly, we are also providing SNAP / WIC outreach and enrollment support to ensure long-term food access. 

The Urban Farm

2020-2023 Project: The Urban Grown Incubator Farm takes a three-pronged approach to promoting a resilient local food system in Denver by addressing workforce development, youth education, and fresh food access through urban agriculture. Urban Grown will utilize soil-based and hydroponic growing methods, allowing for healthy food production and education year-round.

Thriving Families

2022-2024 Project: Thriving Families provides programs to women and families during pregnancy and postpartum. Our HFDK program integrates healthy nutrition education as well as food resources (e.g., community food pantries, WIC, SNAP) into our core program, MotherWise. It provides parents with the information they need for healthy pregnancies and babies.

University of Colorado - Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center

2022-2024 Project: The overarching goal of the Culture of Wellness in Preschools (COWP) program is to provide hands-on, developmentally appropriate, and innovative nutrition education programming for children and youth attending the four largest Denver Public Schools (DPS) Early Childhood Education (ECE) centers and 100 Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) refugee providers, reaching approximately 2,280 children and caregivers in the City and County of Denver.  Specifically, COWP program activities will include: nutrition education lessons for children, parent wellness workshop series, nutrition education texting program, and making health-promoting policy, system and environment changes.

Vista Academy

2021-2024 Project: Vista Academy is proposing a comprehensive program that will provide the Far Northeast community with equitable access of healthful snacks and provide food education to our students and community.  The overall proposal has four key aspects- a 1,000 square foot community garden, an aquaponics system, healthful snack student initiative, and an educational program through our Culinary Department that provides monthly cooking lessons for students’ families. This will be a multi-year keystone project that our school and community can rally behind. The HFDK grant will provide Vista Academy and its community with opportunities to option healthful food options and teach how to cultivate healthful foods sustainably.  Our partnerships with other Community Non-Profit organizations will expand our abilities to serve the far northeast Denver community through educational opportunities and access to healthful food.

ViVe Wellness

2020-2023 Project: We will be providing healthy food and snacks to our participating kids, as well as hands-on growing our own food, nutrition education, and healthy cooking for the family. All activities will be done in Spanish and English.

We Don't Waste

2020-2023 Project: In partnership with Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids, We Don’t Waste is excited to offer healthy food and education to children through a variety of programs. This includes providing free, nutritious food through distribution to nonprofit partner agencies that work with Denver’s youth and their families (including food distribution and recovery with schools) and sustaining/expanding We Don’t Waste’s Mobile Food Markets (free farmers market-style distributions in neighborhoods with limited access to fresh foods). We Don’t Waste will also provide nutrition and cooking education to families at these Mobile Food Markets through live cooking demonstrations and tastings. Additionally, We Don't Waste will partner with schools and other education providers to share nutrition, food waste, and cooking lessons through a variety of experiential learning opportunities.

WeeCycle

2021 micro-grant project: Through their Mobile Baby Essentials program, WeeCycle delivers much needed baby food and baby formula (along with diapers and wipes) to underserved populations in targeted low-income areas across the Denver metro area. Funding from Healthy Food for Denver's Kids will help them continue their emergency response to meet higher demand.

2022-2024 Project: WeeCycle serves infants and toddlers in need with healthy age-appropriate meals of baby food and formula through our Mobile Baby Essentials program. We also will be developing programming to instill the joys of healthy eating in Denver toddlers!

West Campus Food Bank

2020-2023 Project: Denver West Campus Food Bank (WCFB)'s mission is to provide healthy food for the students and families of students attending West Middle and West High Schools, the two schools are located on the West High Campus. West Campus Food Bank, developed to address food insecurity among West campus students, has been in operation since April 6, 2018, and has serviced over 500 individuals, students and their families, a week. WCFB is 100 % volunteer operated.

Wildwood Child and Adult Care Food Program, Inc.

2022-2024 Project: Wildwood sponsors licensed childcare homes, day care centers, Head Start, At-Risk After School and the Summer Food Service Program for USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program.  We are involved with those who care for children - whether they are childcare providers, parents, teachers or others involved with the growth, development, welfare and nutritional needs of children. Children are our most valuable resource, and we are proud to contribute to the efforts of those who enrich children's lives.

Denver Dream Center

2021 micro-grant project: In 2020, Denver Dream Center was awarded a food award and partnered with the Pepsi Center to distribute 2,500,000 pounds of food to 300,000 people in Denver, focused on six of Denver’s most at-risk public housing projects and low-income neighborhoods. As a result, demand for the organization’s services have drastically increased. This grant will support the increased budget requirement for food procurement, storage, transportation, and distribution, as well as supplement the staffing requirements to reach this goal.

Denver Health and Hospital Authority

2021 micro-grant project: Denver Health and Hospital Authority (DHHA) will use $10,000 over the course of a year to pay for personnel to facilitate cooking demonstrations (Healthy World Chef for bilingual English/Spanish classes), groceries for patients, and cooking carts supplied with cooking essentials. They will help ensure that patients with the highest needs for this type of program can access it within a safety-net organization such as Denver Health.

DSST: Cole High School

2021 micro-grant project: As a new initiative of DSST: Cole High School, the Cole Food Pantry was launched to provide, on average 100 families per week, with healthy food boxes, including fresh, local produce, dry goods, and a selection of dairy and meat products. Healthy Food for Denver's Kids funds will supplement the items donated to provide families with a well-rounded food package, including milk, eggs, cheese, and lunch meat.

Echinacea Montessori

2021 micro-grant project: Between independence with food education, gardening while growing food, and a healthy meal program, Echinacea Montessori will use this funding to bring these services to the next level and continue them without financial strain.

Guided by Humanity

2021 micro-grant project: Healthy Food for Denver's Kids funds will support Guided by Humanity and Apprentice of Peace Youth Organization’s “Peace and Humanity Smoothie Bus,” which creates access and wellness opportunities throughout the Denver Metro Area and supportive employment for marginalized youth and youth with Intellectual and/or Developmental disabilities. The Peace and Humanity Smoothie Bus will deliver pop up educational workshops and on-site wellness services using fresh resources from local Colorado organizations to teach youth about nutritious and sustainable eating.

Heart & Hand Center

2021 micro-grant project: Heart & Hand will provide healthy food, meals, and snacks to Denver’s youth during its after school programs. Additionally, funds will be used for the hands-on, experiential food-based education component of Hand & Heart’s programming. At the elementary and middle school levels, Hand & Heart youth have regular opportunities to participate in cooking and nutrition workshops utilizing fresh produce.

Laverne Gillespie Ministries

2021 micro-grant project: This funding will be used to provide healthy food items to youth ages 18 and under. They will make weekly scheduled warm meal delivery and food distribution items to service a wide area of youth and facilities that service youth under 18 years of age.