A vital but overlooked job of many food pantries is to supply meals to students — some of whom only eat with regularity outside the home. The challenges of doing so are steep, with food costs rising anywhere from 10% to 17% over the last two years, depending on the item, said executive director Barbara B. Moore.
“We buy food online and some of the lists of (available) veggies used to be listed on three pages, with maybe 20 on each page,” she said of her nonprofit, which is a recipient of The Denver Post’s annual Season to Share campaign. “Now there’s like one page, so there’s less selection and higher prices. But without a higher budget, we’re not going to be able to give out as many free foods as we used to.”
With nearly 70,000 students spread across Jefferson County’s 155 public schools, it’s a sprawling mission. The food is distributed at the schools, which sets Jeffco Eats apart from some other, public-facing food pantries.
“Jeffco Eats has been tremendously helpful in creating food pantries for Jeffco students at Colorado Facility Schools,” said Megan Coggins, out-of-district coordinator for Jefferson County Schools. “Students in out-of-district placements without cafeterias do not have access to free lunch and snacks and solely depend on families to pack a lunch and snacks for their students. With Jeffco Eats food and snacks for their pantries, Jeffco’s most highly impacted students have access to lunches and snacks throughout the week.”
Jeffco Eats also provides daily snacks for students, which is both a nutritional and emotional concern, Moore said.
“They’re actually for food insecurities that develop during the day,” she said. “Maybe (students are) at band practice after school and they tell the teacher they’re starving, or they missed the school breakfast. Teachers buy snacks, but we buy them too, because every single site asks for them.”
That includes the 30 schools Jeffco Eats serves directly, as well as low-income housing in five Jefferson County communities, church parking lots and city recreation centers, seven days a week. Their diverse populations mean that Jeffco Eats must also communicate regularly with teachers and students to make sure they’re giving them items they want and need.
“Having culturally appropriate foods is really important, especially Latino foods,” Moore said. “We need to have in our budget the pinto beans, masa or pan. But people should know we ask questions, we listen and we buy based on that.”
Moore’s nutritional background informs her work. She was an organic gardener for four years and taught urban agriculture at Metropolitan State University of Denver. The importance of fresh tortillas to students in her district, for example, cannot be overstated, she said. Nor can the fact Jeffo Eats could use another $5,000 here and there to finance the purchase of said tortillas.
They once gave out 60-pound weekly bags of food to families, she said. Due to sharply increased costs that still haven’t gone down since the pandemic, that’s more like 30.
“Suppliers cut us deals, but it’s still expensive to provide fresh food all the time,” she said. “There are (unhoused) people and people living in poverty, and there are the working poor who are not making enough money to pay the bills. In addition to students, that’s a lot of who we’re helping these days.”
Jeffco Eats
Address: 1390 Brentwood St., Lakewood
In operation since: 2014
Number of employees: 2
Volunteers: 600
Annual Budget: $698,250
Number of Clients served: 29,250
