FEATURED NEWS & UPDATES
May 1, 2024
With equity as a core value, the Blueprint is committed to ongoing learning and self-reflection as an organization that’s regenerative and actively working to reverse historical inequities, particularly as it relates to food justice and sovereignty. Our team is kicking off an assessment to evaluate our internal processes and outcomes through an equity lens. Our first step in this process, identified by our team, prioritized co-crafting a broader equity statement with our land acknowledgment built into it.
April 30, 2024
The Blueprint, with support from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment and Colorado Department of Education, updated its child nutrition story map this spring. The online resource was initiated by Workgroup #5 and made publicly available to help maximize federal child nutrition programs across the state. It maps out the current state of the Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) in Colorado.
April 29, 2024
The Blueprint and partners thank the Biden-Harris Administration for their recent announcement of 141 new bold commitments as part of the Call to Action for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. As part of their National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, we hope the Administration will consider the unique needs of rural, frontier, and micro-communities, particularly their challenges to accessing federal funds.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
PARTNER STORIES
The bread is always baking at Delta County Schools on the Western Slope of Colorado. What’s also always happening is Jeri Main, the district’s food service coordinator, and her staff are always on the hunt for new recipes.
Forty-one dining hall staff and managers serve breakfast and lunch for a district of a little more than 4,600 students. Since the start of Healthy School Meals for All, the voter-approved initiative to provide no-cost lunch and breakfast in Colorado’s public schools, Main’s staff has been serving an increasing number of students.
And that means, they’ve had to up their game.
Colectivo de Paz makes food a bridge.
The Denver nonprofit’s mutual aid program focuses on supporting people living unhoused. And a major way it builds trust between the organization’s volunteers and staff and the individuals they serve is by demonstrating an understanding of basic needs.
“If you don’t have those basic physical needs met, there isn’t anywhere else to go. Food is always a need, and it creates trust,” said Julian Temianka, the group’s Director of Outreach and Advancement. “With that line of communication open we can do more. Maybe it’s naturalization status. Maybe it is a wound that’s just out of sight under their shirtsleeve. We can’t just come in to say, ‘Who needs legal services?’ until we establish that baseline.”
Greta Allen, the Blueprint’s Policy Director, recently visited Leadville to celebrate with some partners in Colorado’s Lake County. Located in a mountain valley of central Colorado, Leadville is the highest-elevation incorporated town in North America at 10,158 feet.
During her time there, Greta attended a full-day celebration of food and earth, with the collective goal of creating change to see food in abundance and in ways that allow everyone to eat healthy and be well. The event called “Future Town: Lettuce Gather” was hosted by Lake County Build a Generation (LCBAG) and Warm Cookies of the Revolution in September 2023.