Rising diesel costs in Colorado fueling challenges for The Action Center

Every day, trucks from The Action Center travel across the Denver metro, collecting donated food from grocery stores and other partners that might otherwise go to waste. Its team of drivers then delivers the collected items to the nonprofit's free market, which serves about 200 families a day.

But as diesel prices continue to climb, the cost of keeping those trucks on the road is creating a growing challenge.

According to AAA, the average price of diesel in Colorado has reached about $6.61 per gallon, compared to about $3.50 per gallon a year ago, dramatically increasing transportation costs for organizations that depend on daily deliveries. For truck driver and coordinator Matthew Benigar, the rising costs are impossible to ignore.

"You're just sitting there staring at it," he said, referring to the prices at the pump. "It's going up to like $100 [to fill up]. You're like, wow, this time last year, it wasn't that high."

The nonprofit relies on its trucks to collect and transport thousands of pounds of donated food each week. While the food itself is donated, CEO Carolyn Alexander said getting it from stores to families comes with significant costs.

"When we put in our budget for this fiscal year, we were counting on about half of what the expense was for our diesel," Alexander said. "We've got three trucks that go out and bring in food every day. Five thousand pounds a week of free food gets donated, but it's not free because we need to pay the drivers and we need to fill the tanks and keep bringing in those resources and that nutrition for our neighbors."

Alexander said the nonprofit is facing rising expenses on multiple fronts.

"I saw it at $6.69 the other day," she said of diesel prices. "That's really challenging to try to manage tight budgets when you have that percentage increase. It does seem like it never ends. Every month, the cost of insurance goes up. The Xcel bill is going up. So just like our community, we are just seeing escalating costs."

To help offset those expenses, The Action Center has launched a campaign to raise $10,000 for fuel and delivery costs, helping ensure food continues reaching the families who depend on it. Alexander said she's optimistic the community will respond.

"This is a really great community," she said. "We have folks that have been donors for many, many years. They understand how hard it is out there. They see it at the pumps, and they want to help folks in our neighborhood that don't have any safety net themselves."

For The Action Center, the fundraising effort is about more than covering a fuel bill. It's about making sure rising transportation costs don't disrupt a service hundreds of Colorado families rely on every day.