Our Offices and Food Pantry Will Be Closed 06/19/2025 in Observance of Juneteenth.
Join us for Community Connection Nights every 4th Tuesday! Learn more here.
Growing Home’s Food Pantry Gets A Makeover To Better Serve Our Community!
We’re excited to share that Growing Home is remodeling our food pantry to create a more functional and welcoming space for our participants. This remodel is part of our ongoing commitment to providing dignified, accessible food and resources for families in the community.
Here’s What To Expect
More Comfortable Shopping Environment. We’re expanding and reorganizing the pantry to help families shop in a more comfortable and accessible space.
Expanded TEFAP Section. We’re improving the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) section to ensure that qualified participants can access this essential resource more efficiently.
Increased Storage Capacity. We’re increasing our storage capacity, allowing us to better plan and maintain nutritious stock for families, ensuring a more reliable food supply and enabling us to serve the community with high-quality resources.
Please note that the food pantry will be closed from November 7th to November 22nd as we complete the remodeling work. We plan to reopen and resume normal service on Tuesday, November 26, and look forward to welcome you back to a newly enhanced space.
With these updates, Growing Home is one step closer to creating a more supportive and accessible environment for the families we serve. Thank you for being a part of this exciting transformation!
Stay Involved and Show Your Support
We’re so grateful to our community for helping make this remodel possible. If you’d like to continue supporting our work, you can always consider volunteering, spreading the word, or making a donation to support Growing Home’s mission. Your involvement means the world to us as we strive to create a stronger, more supportive space for everyone.
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]]>Unfruitful: ‘Food Prices Go Up,’ Grocery Stores Spread Out, and Transportation is Tough
By Luke Zarzecki
lzarzecki@coloradocommunitymedia.com
On a warm August morning, the line at Growing Home’s food pantry is already long. People start gathering at the back of the building in Westminster up to two hours before the doors open. They’re there to shop for nutritious foods they otherwise struggle to afford.
Richard Cruz and Cassandra Crockett are among those who have come for help. They live together in Thornton. Cruz works full time as a delivery driver. Crockett used to work full time as a chef but had to stop due to a disability and she ran into health insurance problems.
“It was just too much and I couldn’t get my medicine and you have to wait so many days to get on insurance. This time, it broke me down,” Crockett said.
Even with Cruz putting in extra hours, the couple rely on Growing Home’s food pantry. They have two kids at home.
“Everytime you go to the store, food prices go up,” Cruz said.
The two figure out ways to stretch what they have.
“Always have a bag of potatoes,” said Cruz.
Cruz and Crockett aren’t alone.
One in eight residents and one in five children in surrounding Adams County face food insecurity, according to the local Health Department.
Adams County includes Northglenn, Thornton, Westminster and a wide array of suburbs and rural areas.
Prices of food increased by 10.3% in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks inflation. And, in the first half of 2023, they increased by 8.2%.
In addition to prices, distance is a factor in getting good food. For Cruz and Crockett, the closest grocery store is five minutes’ drive away. But without a car, it’s at least a 20 minute walk each way.
Luckily, they can use their car.
Like Cruz and Crockett, across the region, there are pockets where residents must travel over a mile to get to a grocery store like King Soopers, Safeway or Walmart. In some instances, that distance can be closer to 2-3 miles.
It may not sound like that far of a distance, but a mile can be the difference between regular access to nutritious food, limited access —or none at all.
Many in need can’t afford cars or can’t drive for other reasons — including their health — and options like cabs or rideshare apps can eat up the limited funds they have for food. Public transportation options are limited and difficult for people to rely on, particularly those who have disabilities, limited mobility or children.
“If you’ve ever bought your groceries and tried to take them on a bus, that is incredibly challenging,” said Rachel Sinley, associate professor of nutrition at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
It all adds up to a situation where some residents across the county live in “food deserts,” she said. Those are areas where there is no or limited access to healthful, nutritious, affordable food.
Food deserts consist of three big barriers: income, transportation and access.
It’s defined by government sources as an urban area where 33% of the people living in a census tract reside more than one mile from a supermarket or other food source. For rural areas, the defined distance is 10 miles.
“For a lot of suburban areas, a mile is still pretty far if you don’t have access to reliable public transportation or access to transportation,” Sinley said.
The definitions are limiting, though. An area with more supermarkets but less access to reliable transportation may be as much of a food desert as an area with fewer supermarkets but better transportation options, she said.
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]]>Artists Generously Turn Out To Support Growing Home’s New Home Project
Local, national, and international artists have contributed artworks to the New Home for Growing Home Campaign
Denver, June 18, 2023 – Growing Home, a North Denver nonprofit, is on the daily front lines in serving the needs of our underrepresented and most impacted communities with food, housing, parenting education, and support to achieve lifelong stability. After a chance encounter with a woman who was living in her car with two dogs outside St. Anthony North hospital where she worked, nurse Kathleen Drozda, founded the organization to serve the needs of families who had lost their homes or were at risk of becoming unhoused. As it celebrates its 25th year of operations, Growing Home needs a bigger facility with more capacity for food storage, additional freezers, private family spaces, and community gathering areas to better serve the needs of the North Denver community.
In June 2023, Growing Home launched the New Home for Growing Home Campaign to raise funds to make the dream of a new facility a reality. To kick it off, local, national, and international artists were invited to donate artworks to “Art for Growing Home”, a new event supporting Growing Home’s mission. The response has been overwhelming and over 150 pieces of art, photography, and jewelry have been donated for this art auction that will be held at Raices Brewery, 2060 W Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80204, on August 4, 2023, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. More information can be found at https://artforgrowinghome.com/.
Carli Seeba, Co-CEO said, “We hoped, yet could not have predicted, the tremendous response from our artists’ community. We have artworks across all styles for our silent and live auctions and we are grateful to our contributing artists from the Denver area and other geographies.”
As a community-centered organization that serves a population that is 99% low-income, 90% women, 81% people of color, and 67% Latinx, Growing Home continues to evolve to serve the increased demand for services. “As we look to the next decades of Growing Home, we are excited that our community is offering this amazing support to help us move into a larger space in 2024 so we can better serve families,” Seeba said.
About Growing Home
Growing Home’s programs and services support self-sufficiency and stabilization for low-income individuals and families experiencing barriers to success so they can stay housed, have access to food, acquire life skills, and thrive. Growing Home’s leadership and staff reflect the community and are uniquely positioned to serve their needs. Growing Home’s team offers participants cultural connection, bilingualism, and a safe space to hold conversations on their immediate needs and long-term goals. https://growinghome.org/.
Media Contact
Leonor McCall-Rodriguez
310.710.3824
leonor@growinghome.org
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]]>New Growing Home Logo
Growing Home recently unveiled our new logo. It captures our mission and what our community loves about Growing Home.
The color palette reflects the hues of home, our Colorado landscape.
The angle at the top symbolizes the mountains, upward direction, and the umbrella that brings us all together as a community.
The two seeds and leaf signify growth.
And, the smile embedded in “GH” represents the welcoming environment we strive to create for all our participants.
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