Large swaths of Denver's neighborhoods are in food deserts. About 33% of Denver's population is food insecure and, as of 2020, more than 23,000 children in the county lack access to consistent meals, according to Feeding America and city data.
Denver Public Schools, in connection with Mayor Michael Hancock's office, is attempting to alleviate some of those needs by placing grocery stores at their new Community Hub locations. The stores will provide free food, toiletries and sneakers to local families throughout the region.
Amazon and Aetna will finance the stores and they'll be operated by Goodr, an Atlanta-based sustainable waste management and hunger relief company that focuses on pop-up grocery stores, food delivery and school-based stores.
"It's not your typical food bank in which you can go ahead and take X amount of cans," said DPS superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero at a Wednesday event celebrating the openings. 'This is, "What do you desire to eat tonight?' Guardian and student can pick out ingredients, recipes and have a bonding moment... If we can eradicate [hunger] as a barrier that students have then we've allowed those students the opportunity that many other students have already. That's equity beyond what we do in the classroom."
On Wednesday, city officials and community stakeholders gathered at Place Bridge Academy in the Washington Virginia Vale neighborhood, which will host the first of the two stores.
Colfax Elementary will also host another grocery store.
Inside an annexed trailer toward the back of the campus, the store features a collection of fresh and frozen goods that are culturally relevant to the area. There's halal options, vegan and vegetarian selections and fresh mangoes and squashes on display. In another room, there are racks of clothing, sneakers, shampoo and baby diapers.
Goodr founder and CEO Jasmine Crowe said the available items are all intentional and provide a sense of dignity to the families that need the service.
Before starting Goodr, Crowe handed out meals and food to those experiencing homelessness using her own money and making the most of her couponing skills. There, she began thinking of how much food is consistently wasted in the country and what could be a logistical way to help solve food injustice.
She also began thinking about what type of food is handed to people. Crowe noted that at some pantries, people get a gallon of barbecue sauce and snacks without any meat, rice or some type of cohesive idea for a meal.
Starting Goodr, Crowe said the goal was to bring food to where people needed it and also provide food combinations that made sense.
"The big concept I had when I was building Goodr and even when I was feeding people on the streets was dignity," Crowe said. "How can we give people the opportunity to have access to something they need and want without saying 'hey here's a box of food, take it.' They don't know what's in that box. They get home and now they have to marry what you gave them and try to go to other food banks and pantries to make something. Here, a mom can come in and say, okay I'm going to make some spaghetti for the family that will last two or three days and then I'll come back again."
The concept of putting a store at a school is one way to meet people where they already are, Crowe said, and could potentially be an access point for kids needing a snack throughout the day.
Putting the stores at DPS' Community Hubs was born from collaboration between Marrero and Hancock.
During the opening Wednesday, Hancock shared that during a trip to Atlanta, he was able to connect with Crowe to learn more about the organization. He introduced it to Marrero, who said the stores would go perfectly in the Hubs.
The Community Hubs program started this year and the goal, Marrero said, was to provide more services to students and families. There are six hubs and each will be tailored to provide the area's specific needs, whether that be GED classes, ESL classes for adults, citizenship classes, workforce development, college prep or gang outreach.
Five of the hubs are located in schools including Place Bridge Academy, Johnson Elementary and Colfax Elementary.
Colfax is currently experiencing low enrollment and is being considered for closure, but Marrero said not all of the hubs are in schools, like the hub inside the Focus Points Family Resource Center in Elyria-Swansea. He added that the Colfax Elementary Hub would continue to operate even if the school does end up closing.
Some of the Hubs are also run with the help of neighborhood organizations like the Montbello Organizing Committee, and Westwood Unidos, two groups currently working to add more accessible grocery stores to their food deserts. An area is considered a food desert when at least 500 people, or 33% of the area population, lives more than one mile away from a supermarket or large grocery store, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Similar to the goal of Goodr, Marrero said these Hub meet people where they are, providing them a nearby, trusted location for their social needs.
DPS' goal is eventually for all six Hub locations to host a grocery store -- something that would go to alleviating food insecurity in the surrounding neighborhoods, especially for students.
Hancock and Marrero both noted at Wednesday's event that when they were students, school meals were sometimes their only meals of the day.
"I was one of those children who walked into a classroom every day, hungry, but could not think about anything except when that clock hit 10:20 because that's when we were going to lunch," Hancock said.
Marrero added, "Where I come from, you dreaded snow days slightly because that meant that you weren't going to eat the meal that was quite frankly the only hot meal that you had for that day planned."
The stores will operate during school hours. Parents, guardians and students will be able to grab a free reusable bag and choose items that suit their needs. Guardians will also be encouraged to sign up for the other services provided at the hub. Everything is free.
"No teacher can ever teach through hunger," Crowe said. "If you have families that don't have cars and they live in food deserts which right now more than 40% of America lives in a food desert...you have this logistics box that keeps so many people from having access to food. That's why it's important to bring food where we already have people. To bring and create these community opportunities where we have students that are riding the bus to school or walking to school and now have the ability to not only get education, but also to get food."
