Denver's increase in demand for food assistance cuts into resources for unhoused

Food resources are drying up all around the city of Denver, as more families seek food assistance during the federal government shutdown. That means there's less excess at local food banks that would typically be used to feed the unhoused. 

Amy Beck is among a network of people joining together to collect unwanted or excess food and repurpose it. She's opened up her house and provided refrigerators and freezers as a place for people to drop and receive food. 

"This is a mutual aid commissary, where rescued food gets donated and retrieved by people who have kitchens to cook the food for those who don't, as well as to stock community refrigerators," said Brian Loma of GreenLatinos Colorado. "This is a hub, the biggest one in Denver, for the distribution of rescued food that is served to make sure that people who don't have a house, don't go hungry."

Loma is part of that network, and he says, presently, food is harder to come by. Although some grocery stores donate, the majority of the food they obtain is left over from food banks.

"Those facilities are seeing a full use of the resources that they have," Loma said. They don't have as much, if any, leftover food to move on to the next level, where we meet the needs and the gaps of our unhoused community."

Wally Barrett also stops by several times a week. 

"I move food," Barrett said. "I move at least six or seven loads of food a week. I got a call this morning from someone who said they had some excess food, and so I ran and got that and dropped it off at some encampments."

Barrett says he's been moving and delivering food for 45 years, and the issue is only getting worse. He's yet to see the amount of food he moves diminish, but he believes that's only a credit to the people who dedicate their time to seeking it.

"We have an urgency to go to more places to ask for greater donations," Loma said.

The mission for people like Barrett, Loma and Beck has never been greater. They comprise a daily network that feeds the unhoused through food that's overlooked. 

"Everyone that I deal with is working to find more food and to give out more food, and so it's been hard," said. 

Beck says any person or business who would like to donate food or other resources to their outreach efforts to call 720-515-8255.