Ryan is a nightside reporter for Denver7.
LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — At the Food Bank for Larimer County, volunteer Archie Trujillo has seen the rising demand firsthand.“I just want to help the community,” he said. “ We have a lot of immigrant families from Guatemala, Peru, Cuba.
When they come through, they feel comfortable that somebody speaks their language. I do most of the applications in Spanish and English.”He said the past year has been busy, telling Denver7 that the food bank received one to two dozen new applications a day in 2024. Trujillo said people feel comfortable coming to the food bank’s distribution sites.“It's like a store,” he explained. “They pick what they want… if they don't need it or don't use it, they won't take it. So that's what they like about here, and they’re very respected.”Trujillo said many of those new sign-ups have been coming from neighboring counties, like Weld or Boulder, though some have come from as far as Denver.During a record-setting 2024, the Food Bank for Larimer County said it distributed 12.5 million pounds of food, with about 20% going to visitors from outside the county. So the food bank decided it needed to make a change.Starting Tuesday, new clients will need to provide proof of a Larimer County address, and anyone using the food bank will need to do so starting July 1.“As a Feeding America food bank, we're restricted to sourcing food and funds from within Larimer County,” Operations Director Josh Greene explained. “So if our service grows outside of our county, we can't do the corresponding increase in outreach and sourcing of food and funds. And so we realized, you know, we're in a position where this is becoming unsustainable.”Greene hopes the change will “ease up some of our storage and distribution capacity” and hopefully provide “a little bit of breathing room.” He said without it, the food bank would likely see another record year of demand in 2025, potentially leading them to other changes like limiting how much food they can distribute at each visit.Read our previous coverage on hunger in Colorado below:Anti-hunger advocates urge lawmakers to reconsider cuts to SNAP fundingFederal funding cuts the latest blow to Colorado food banks already struggling with rising food costsDenver7 Gives: Food Bank of The Rockies in need of more volunteersHow you can help Food Bank of the Rockies fight rising food costThe change comes as demand could jump even higher.“Especially with recent cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, it's almost inevitable,” Greene said. “The increased bandwidth at our pantry locations like this will help us be able to serve the increase in the number of people within Larimer County who are going to need help in the next 12 months.“There are more and more people needing resources. There are the same, if not fewer, resources available to us in order to serve them. And so we really have to be very specific and very careful about how we do what we do to ensure that we can continue doing this for the long run.”That being said, Greene said the Food Bank for Larimer County has been in touch with partner food banks in neighboring counties that are ready to meet the increased need. It’s also redirecting those out-of-county clients to where they can go for help in their own communities. Its food finder map can show the closest pantry or no-cost shopping location to a specific address.“There are tons of resources throughout the entire state for people facing food insecurity. We're not the only one,” said Greene. “We may be confined to Larimer County, but hunger doesn't know county boundaries at all.”The state has offered the following solutions for those who may be impacted by potential changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits:Roll over unused SNAP benefits to the next month. Unused benefits can remain on EBT cards for up to nine months. This may help cushion the impact of the reduction in benefits. Stock up on non-perishable items now, while you have the additional benefits. Stretch food ingredients and plan to use them in more than one meal. This helps to save money and reduce food waste. Consider freezing produce to make fruit and vegetables last longer. Look at unit prices to compare similar products at the grocery store.
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