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Every year, 40 percent of the food produced in the United States ends up in a landfill – enough to fill the Rose Bowl with bruised veggies every day of the week.

Colorado Springs Food Rescue (CSFR) seeks to intercept and rescue the unused, edible food that is about to be thrown away and sustainably transport it to Colorado Springs residents who are in need of a good meal. CSFR recruits volunteers from around the community, picks up from 18 donor businesses and delivers food to 14 recipient sites around the city each day of the week, rescuing an average of 25,000 pounds of fresh food every month.

Recipient sites include other local hunger relief efforts, but CSFR has recently steered its focus to collaborating directly with low-income communities with the express purpose of increasing access to and knowledge about healthy foods. These five established grocery programs are managed by community members, creating a participatory structure around the way the food is redistributed. When driven by the community, these grocery programs flourish into venues not only for food distribution, but for education, empowerment and community building.

The most recent collaborative grocery program is based at Atlas Preparatory, a Harrison District 2 charter school that aims to provide free, high-quality education similar to private preparatory schools. CSFR staff, Atlas Prep staff, Colorado College students, and Atlas Prep high school student interns work together to create and manage a weekly food program that provides fresh produce and pantry items to participating families.

In addition to driving the food program, the four Atlas Prep student interns receive school credit for their managerial experience and do coursework that furthers their critical understanding of the food system and food injustice in Colorado Springs. They are mentored by two Colorado College student coordinators on a weekly basis, providing a productive curriculum and peer support. “We do not want the students to just retain the knowledge they are gaining through the program, we want them to take it further and find ways in which they can become integral members of progress and change in their own communities,” said education coordinators Andy Rivas and Luis Quiles.

These food programs begin when community members devise their own structure for food distribution, but the bigger vision is achieved when each becomes a diverse venue for nutrition education, cooking classes, canning demonstrations and community events.