Colorado Springs Food Rescue Builds Healthier Communities through Food Systems

Colorado Springs Food Rescue is a non-profit organization located in Colorado Springs, Colorado working towards food justice and equity in the central Colorado community. The organization is supported by their three pillars of action: Food Access, Food Education, and Food Production.

Colorado Springs Food Rescue volunteers have distributed over $6 million of groceries to the Colorado Springs community since 2013. Volunteers transport food from cafeterias, supermarkets, and backyard gardens to other non-profits and programs throughout the community. The organization not only rescues food to give to others, it also rescues food from the doom of the landfill. Landfills release a great amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Soil Cycle, the organization’s composting program, hopes to deter that waste.

In order to achieve their goal of communities that are food secure and healthy, Colorado Springs Food Rescue invests in local youth. The organization hosts programs at multiple schools in the area and teaches the curriculum: cook, compost, cultivate, and communicate, in order to build healthier and stronger communities with next generations.

On top of all the programming that Colorado Springs Food Rescue does, they also encourage all volunteers to use biking as their method of transportation when volunteering. Whether dropping off leftovers from the cafeteria at a local homeless shelter or picking up veggies at a neighbor’s house, volunteers release zero-emissions by using a bike to get around when able.