Food Rescue program provides fresh food for people in need

The latest inflation numbers show that grocery prices increased 13-percent in July. That kind of increase hits working families the hardest. King Soopers Food Rescue program gets fresh produce and other foods into the hands of those families.

Through the Food Rescue program, King Soopers has donated nearly 3-million pounds of food company-wide from January to June of this year. Fresh food is culled from nearly every part of the store, including the bakery, deli, meat/seafood department, and of course, produce. All the food goes to food banks serving the community.

"It is fresh. It's just not as pretty as everything else we have in the store right now," said Nighcley Louis, Assistant Meat Manager.

Louis has worked for King Soopers, in the Broomfield store off 287, for 8 years. She's among many employees who set aside food for the Food Rescue program. It's a mission that's close to her heart.

"I love doing this. Me, personally, I used to be a foster kid. So my foster mom would go and get food. So the fact that I'm able to do the same for somebody else or some other family, it's amazing," Louis told CBS4.

That one Broomfield King Soopers has donated 25,903 pounds of fresh food since the beginning of this year, and most of it goes to Broomfield FISH, Fellowship in Serving Humanity. It's a family assistance center with a comprehensive food bank. The facility is set up like a store, and clients shop the shelves picking out the food they know they'll use. Broomfield FISH welcomes the fresh it gets several times a week.

"I can't say enough about our grocery stores and the partnerships we have," said Mike Lutz, Food Operations Manager.

Broomfield FISH started out as a volunteer organization in 1963. It serves about a thousand people a month with food, rental assistance and mentoring.

"We want them to not have to worry about food. Where they can have those meals ready for them morning, noon, and night," Lutz said.

Right now FISH is seeing an increasing number of people request help. Volunteers are serving 1 out every 7 residents in Broomfield, and they're seeing more people who've never needed assistance before.

"With the cost of everything and how much it costs to live in Broomfield, it does not surprise me that there are a lot of working families, a lot of people that just don't have enough to make ends meet," Lutz explained.

LINK: Enter CBS4's King Soopers Gift Card Giveaway

CBS4 is partnered with King Soopers to help families make ends meet at the grocery store. You can enter for a chance to win a $150 gift card to King Soopers. Winners are picked every week through September 30, 2022.