Every family wants their children to have healthy food on the table, but making that happen isn’t always easy. A citywide program is working hard to make sure those families aren’t falling through the cracks. It’s a program worth knowing about, both for the difference it makes for families in your community and the opportunities to support that work.
It’s called Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids and is born from a simple truth: no child should learn on an empty stomach or miss the nutrition they need to grow and thrive. Denver voters approved the initiative in 2018, and it’s been turning that belief into action ever since.
Meeting Kids Where They Already Are
Rather than running as one centralized program, Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids funds a network of local nonprofits, schools and community organizations that already know the families they serve. That means support looks different from neighborhood to neighborhood and shows up where kids already spend time — at school, in community spaces, close to home.
That support includes school food pantries, snack and meal programs, grocery boxes, meal kits, food delivery and help enrolling in SNAP or WIC, often with culturally relevant food and multilingual services so families feel genuinely seen, not just served. The program also invests in school gardens, cooking classes and food justice education, building habits that last well beyond childhood.
A Local Organization Doing the Work
In Westwood, the nonprofit Re:Vision has spent nearly two decades turning a neighborhood long affected by disinvestment into a model of community-led resilience. Its approach centers on urban agriculture, training and employing community members to lead food programs, youth education and small business development rooted in the local food system.
Thanks to help from Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids funding, Re:Vision offers a family garden program, helping local families grow food by providing seeds, plants, compost and drip irrigation systems to convert their yards into high-production organic vegetable gardens.
Every backyard garden we help create is an investment in a family’s health, stability and future,” said Mariana del Hierro, Executive Director of Re:Vision. "By pairing fresh, organic food with the knowledge and support families need to grow it season after season, we are helping Denver residents build lasting food security and a stronger community from the ground up.”
Why It’s Worth Knowing About
Since launching, the Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids has invested more than $100 million across 118 organizations, reaching over 101,000 households a year — distributing more than 55 million pounds of food, including 632,000+ meals and snacks in a single year.
Want to learn more about the initiative or find resources to share with someone who might need them? Visit Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids.
Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids is tackling childhood food insecurity head on while building a healthier future. By funding hundreds of local organizations that provide nutritious meals, culturally relevant food, gardening education and access to federal food assistance programs, Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids serves tens of thousands of youth every year.
Funded by a sales tax approved by Denver voters, this initiative is not only reducing childhood hunger today but it’s also building long-term health equity for Denver’s most vulnerable youth.
