Michael Medina is a worker bee.

“I can’t rest when there’s tomato plants that need pruning,” he said of the garden he helps care for.

It’s where he lives in the ALTO affordable housing complex in Westminster. Medina, 69 years old, resigned from his job after surgeries from an accident prevented him from working. He moved to the complex with his wife after they lost their home as a result of their economic troubles following the surgeries. 

He wants to work, but can’t. So he funnels that energy into helping his community in the garden space across the street from the apartment complex. Residents eat the produce they grow. 

Because Medina is on a fixed income, the fresh tomatoes help. But the garden doesn’t provide all his needs. So, his wife keeps an eye out for deals on produce sales at Sprouts, King Soopers and Safeway. Buying fresh, organic foods can be cost prohibitive, but by being watchful, the couple finds a few good deals.

“When you’re counting your pennies, it is what it is,” Medina said. 

Despite his situation, Medina considers himself and his wife blessed. They have some money to buy food and a vehicle to drive to the stores. Also, he’s noticed that some of his neighbors aren’t so lucky. One is an elderly woman that takes a bus to Walmart but can only  carry a few bags. 

Other neighbors — some old, some young, some with disabilities — face barriers. It takes them more time and more effort to get the food they need 

There is a Save A Lot a few blocks from the housing complex, but the name can be deceiving. 

“You can get a generic brand of cornflakes and they'll charge you close to the same price that you'll pay for a brand name at a regular supermarket,” Medina said. 

Affordability is a root cause of food accessibility issues for those struggling. The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated it. 

Lori Swanson is a counseling secretary who runs a food bank at Northglenn High School. Her food bank serves as many as 150 students a month, which translates to as many as 600 family members.

Swanson said the high cost of metro area housing negatively affects how much food families can afford. During the pandemic, families she worked with struggled economically.

“It often meant more people working but at low wage jobs, a lot of times in our community and some paying a really crazy housing expense and utilities,” she said. “Sometimes food and what you can afford to eat falls to the bottom of the list.” 

The struggle linked to the pandemic has been difficult, Swanson said. She tried contacting one student to invite her family to a Food For Hope Thanksgiving event. The student wasn’t at school for a week. So, Swanson emailed her dad to no avail, and finally called his work number. His boss said he had died.

“Life happens to these kids and while they're in our community, we try to take care of them the best we can,” Swanson said.

Sometimes, it can simply be that parents are working every hour of the day they can to keep up.. 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank, total wages and salaries in Colorado increased by 5.65% from the first quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023. However, from January 2022 to 2023, the consumer price index increased by 6.35% and  another 1.1% since then. 

It contributes to the already-existing wealth gap and income inequality in Colorado. A 2021 memo from the legislature’s staff said the state’s top income earners rebounded faster after COVID-19 lockdowns compared to the bottom 90% earners. 

Since that time, “income inequality quickly resumed its ascent,” the memo said. 

Rachel Sinley, associate professor and chair of Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Department of Nutrition, said people who are struggling can find themselves in a never-ending cycle. Food deserts, often inhabited by low-income residents who have less financial access and less transportation access, aren’t fought-for supermarket customers. 

“That's one of the biggest issues that we see is that the incentive for certain retailers to enter certain markets is not perceived as beneficial because of what they already see from a lack of financial liability and in the region, so it just perpetuates the cycle,” she said. 

If purchasers don’t have the data to suggest they can convert populations from relying on fast food to buying nutritious, fresh food, it discourages those retailers, especially if there aren’t reliable transportation options to get people in the doors. 

“It just outweighs any perceived benefits that they would have and it's a gamble they can't really take,” Sinley said.

Density and income

Some supermarket chains are cold and calculating, only willing to open in a community if they have a perfect convergence of square footage for a store, dozens of parking spaces and even daily counts of tens of thousands of vehicles in the region. 

Lauren Chenarides, a professor at Arizona State University who wrote her dissertation on the economics of food deserts, said grocery profitability is based on two factors: population density and income.

“They tend to take a total amount of income in an area and divide it by the number of people,” she said. “That’s a very crude metric of how much purchasing power each individual has.”

Or doesn’t have, if a supermarket decides not to set up in a given neighborhood.

Westminster’s Economic Development Director Lindsey Kimball echoed what Chenarides said. Supermarkets, Kimball said, seek a “highly visible location, easy access for customers, convenient to customers, population within three miles, income levels consistent with products sold.”

Grocery stores run razor-thin margins, Kimball added. In neighborhoods where consumers struggle, supermarkets struggle, too. Normally, profits are made on “nice to have” items, she said. When customers are barely filling their carts, it leaves grocers reassessing their operations in such communities.

“These items generally have the greatest profit margin for grocers and customers are bypassing these items for their weekly essentials to stay on budget,” she said in an email to Colorado Community Media. 

Looking at maps of where grocers are in Westminster, Northglenn and Thornton, Kimball said it proves the importance of location. 

“Notice how almost every one of them is at the intersection of major roadways,” she said. “In fact, many grocers prefer to be located at signalized intersections. Convenience is the name of the game and grocers want customers to access their stores with minimal hassle.” 

Harsh impacts of less access to nutritious food 

Dr. Sandra Stenmark, a pediatrician, described a snowball effect when families struggle to afford food. If a child in their formative early years doesn't receive adequate nutrition, they face a higher risk of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and other bad outcomes throughout their lives.

“We know that in utero and the first two years of a child's life, that is when the brain is most rapidly growing and neural connections are happening more than ever,” she said. “When a child is deprived of nutrition during that period, it really can impact cognition, and the child's development.” 

Food-stressed households may also have less time to read to a child and otherwise contribute to their development. Part of the reason may be that parents are anxious and stressed because of the struggle.

That can also be facing hard choices. 

“Then, if you're struggling to afford food, often then you have to make a decision: Shall I pay for medication or pay for food?” Stenmark said. 

Northglenn High School Principal Sharee Blunt taught at Thornton High School and Shaw Heights Middle School prior to becoming an administrator. In all her roles, she saw how family struggles for food affects childrens’ performance. 

“‘I’m going to need to reach out and ask my friends (for food,)’” Blunt said as an example of a student’s distraction from studies.

From the garden and beyond: looking for solutions

The community garden at the Irving Street Library in south Westminster grows eggplants, herbs, peppers and tomatoes and provided about 3,000 pounds of produce for a local food pantry. 

“It’s a consistent way to access produce,” said Advocacy and Community Organizing Manager Whitney Leeds of Growing Home.

The Westminster-based nonprofit food pantry, and other community leaders and advocates, convinced the city to help fund the garden space. 

It also provides food to local residents who have struggled since the Walmart at 72nd Avenue and Federal closed in July of 2021. The residents depended on Walmart because it had lower prices and more choices than a discount grocer and Asian market in the area. The area also has many undocumented people, so they can’t qualify for federal programs like SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides funds each month for low-income households to purchase food.

To help them, Growing Home spearheaded a feasibility study to see if an independent, resident-owned co-op for the area was possible. The study found that it wasn’t.

Growing Home Co-CEO Veronica Perez said there are some factors out of their control. 

“It was at least positive to hear that there might be some possibility for there to be a form of co-op, but knowing that it would require a large amount of funding and on both ends, not just Growing Home, but the city itself and other partnerships,” she said. 

One factor working against the co-op was that the mark up on the produce would need to be higher than what’s affordable to most in the community. 

“If this co-op couldn't make a profit without those elements, it just doesn't make sense for us because those prices have to be affordable for our community members and the wages have to be good,” Leeds said.

Instead,  Growing Home is looking at other local barriers to food, including transportation availability and affordability. 

Leeds said buses don't always meet the needs of low income people in historic Westminster and unincorporated Adams County. And sometimes transit complicates the issues of low-income folks, rather than solves them.

“You put a light rail stop in a community that's low income because they don't have access to transit, it has the adverse effect of driving property values up,” Leeds said. 

The Denver Regional Council of Governments is studying the 72nd Avenue corridor and the Federal Boulevard corridor, she said. 

Some ideas in the works include mobile markets, discounted delivery services and a buyers’ club. A buyers’ club would involve residents pooling their money to purchase their food together The group will host a community meeting in fall to determine more.  

Growing Home may benefit from a bill passed earlier this year. Incentives and funds will be available for a healthy eating program that helps low-income Coloradans, said Derek Kuhn, tax communications officer for the state.

The money will go to the Division of Prevention Services in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to partner with nonprofit. It expands a Department of Agriculture food access program with grants to small food retailers.

“Beginning with tax year 2024, the bill also provides future funding for the food accessibility program by requiring an add-back of the amount of federal deduction that can be claimed by individuals and corporations for business meals, which will increase general fund collections by the tax due on the amount required to be added back,” Kuhn wrote in an email. 

Lori Swanson, counseling secretary at Northglenn High School, poses at Odin’s Outpost at Northglenn High School.

More than food: how an outpost is helping

In Northglenn and Thornton, nonprofit Food for Hope partnered with Adams 12 Five Star School district to create the food banks that operate in schools. 

Lori Swanson runs Odin’s Outpost at Northglenn High School. The Outpost provides more than just food. It provides clothes and hygiene products, too. 

Swanson remembers one student who moved from a different country who was unprepared for the cold weather. She give him a bright green jacket.

“I could always see him in school, because he always had his bright green coat on. He loved that coat,” she said. 

Swanson, who is also the counseling secretary at the school, helped start the program after the 2020 graduating class gifted the space to the school.

Food for Hope Executive Director Emily Stromquist said one of the seeds of the program started when a counselor packed multiple lunches everyday for students who came into her office looking for food. 

Within the Adams 12 district, Stromquist said there’s a degree of need in all communities but students tend to be from south Thornton, south Westminster and Federal Heights. 

“It's just different levels in terms of concentration of families,” she said. 

Over 60% of their population is Hispanic, so they try to include culturally appropriate foods. By providing those ingredients, like a bag of cornmeal or beans, families turn them into nutritious meals. 

Some need items that are easily warmed up or can be eaten directly. One student was living in a van. 

While many students feel comfortable shopping at Odin’s Outpost for what they need, there is a stigma for about half. In some cases, teachers may grant a hall pass so the student can shop alone. 

The Outpost also fills gaps not covered by the Free and Reduced Lunch program. Swanson said the Outpost provides over 1,000 snacks a month. 

“A lot of times, the most appealing choice for a kid on Free and Reduced lunch is a slice of pizza and a milk,” Swanson said. “For a high school boy, a slice of pizza and a milk is not going to cut it for a whole day.”

And once a student graduates, they usually don’t come back but if they do, they aren’t rejected. 

“They're still part of our community,” said Swanson. 

The line at the food pantry hasn’t gone away

Wendy Sanchez stands in line at Growing Home’s food pantry in Westminster on an August morning. She’s one of the dozens who come here during the five days the doors are open each week.

She asked that her real name not be used and spoke through a Spanish translator. She said she came to the pantry because she doesn’t have the resources to feed herself and her family. She recently lost her job and is looking for another. She also has four children, ages 10, 12, 15 and 18. All are in school. 

Another food recipient was Matt, who declined to give his last name. He said he’s retired and comes to the food pantry to feed himself and bring food to those around him. He hosts dinners made with Hamburger Helper.

“I keep what I can eat, everything else goes to everyone else,” he said. 

One of his neighbors is a grandma who recently lost her son. He’s been helping her out by cooking meals. 

“It’s what we do, it’s about helping people out,” he said.

Every person Matt helps is working a job. They try to help and support their own family, but with wages staying low and prices going up, it doesn’t work. 

He added that he is grateful for the pantry. Supermarkets are expensive and, for many without cars, hard to get to. 

Times are tough for many people he knows, he said. He noticed more and more people struggling. One of the families he helps is a single mother with three kids. She works at Walmart and does everything she can to provide for her kids.

“Working at Walmart doesn’t pay the bills,” he said.