About Us
Who is the Southwest Food Coalition?
We are a collaborative group of food champions taking action to increase food access for everyone in our Southwest Denver community. Our coalition is made up of community members and local partners including food pantries, schools, community organizations, farms, vendors, and government representatives.
We have a collective vision of a food system that is community driven, resilient, strong and effective. With collective power, the needs of community members experiencing food insecurity will be met.
How it began
In March of 2020, Lifespan Local staff and Southwest Denver resident, Ken Knoblock, was tasked with responding to the urgent need for food while also conducting a landscape analysis of food systems in Southwest Denver.
What was found was food system where community has no role, community agencies fight for resources, no storage or transportation system exists, and no one is working together. It was clear that the broken food system wasn’t working.
It turns out the charitable food system is complicated. Although dozens of agencies across Denver including schools, churches, pantries, and community organizations support a just food system, they collectively lack funding, staffing, and space. Without adequate funding they can’t purchase or store fresh foods or implement best practices. No one has had the capacity to bring together the community to coordinate and transform the food system.
In addition, Southwest Denver is an area of high need with 33% of residents experiencing food insecurity and 26% living in poverty. The community is in a food desert and faces Food Apartheid (systemic inequalities and policies that led to food insecurity).
Let’s Start a Coalition!
We were eager to jump to solutions like buying a warehouse and box trucks, but realized that we had to start with centering community and supporting true collaboration.
We held our first meeting in February of 2021 with 12 residents and agencies and established our solution to create a Coalition that focused on:
Centering community and sharing power.
Creating and managing critical infrastructure.
Coordinating efforts at a hyper local level, supported by regional partners.
Taking action to address immediate community needs.
Working toward long term systems changes.
From our first meeting, our Coalition’s goals, vision, structure, programs and services have all been designed collaboratively.
Where we are now
As early as our first Coalition meeting, the community expressed the need for this project to be housed at a neutral location. The Coalition was fortunate to grow and receive immense support as a program of Lifespan Local. As Lifespan grows and focuses on their new community center, there presented an opportunity for the Southwest Food Coalition to become independent and have the entire focus be on food insecurity. A feasibility study was conducted and members unanimously voted for the Coalition to become and independent agency.
We are excited for this next step and invite you to join us on our journey to help get nourishing food out to our community and transform our food system.
