There are thousands of Boulder County residents, families and workers who aren’t sure how they will feed themselves this week. These neighbors are hidden from most of us as we work, dine, shop, pray and play each day. Walter O'Toole has met Boulder’s burgeoning food insecure population every day for the past four years as the food bank manager at Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA).
“I was talking with one of EFAA’s shoppers the other day,” he says. “She said: ‘Pretty much everything I eat comes from EFAA. Without it, I would not be able to feed myself. I don't have the resources.’
“I’ve heard that story much more than once.”
Food Insecurity: How serious is the problem?
1 in 8: The number of Boulder County residents affected by food insecurity, according to Community Food Share.
58% of eligible Coloradans are signed up for SNAP food benefits, according to Hunger Free Colorado. The national sign-up average is 75%.
47 million: The number of people living in food insecure households in the United States in 2023, including nearly 14 million children, according to Department of Agriculture statistics. This is the highest rate and number of food insecure individuals and children in the U.S. since 2014.
More than 37% of food bank visitors say they rely on it as a primary food source, according to EFAA, one of Boulder’s oldest family resource nonprofits. From July 2023 through June 2024, the organization distributed 1.6 million pounds of food (worth $3 million) to 2,599 households including 6,511 individuals.
“Mostly, we have a lot of families with kids seeking assistance," O'Toole says. "Latino families are a big part of our community here.”
Like other food banks, EFAA has an emphasis on providing culturally familiar foods, not just peanut butter, tuna and mac-n-cheese. They also provide quality fresh produce to clients.
“People can get as much fresh produce as they want,” he says. “Most of our food is donated by Community Food Share or rescued from local supermarkets, but we allocate part of our budget to purchase things like corn tortillas, dried beans, chilies, tomatillos and cilantro. We purchase a lot of produce, beef, tortillas and eggs from Boulder County farmers and producers.
"Having that strong local food system is important for food security for the whole community.”
There is a long menu of reasons why food insecurity has become so much worse.
“Quite a few COVID-era assistance programs — including the increased child tax credit and increases in SNAP benefits — have ended while the cost of living in Boulder County has continued to skyrocket,” he says. “Demand for our direct financial assistance program for rent has gone through the roof.”
Like Boulder County’s other food banks including Our Center in Longmont and Lafayette’s Sister Carmen, EFAA is struggling to meet the increased need.
“We had been allowing clients to shop weekly, but we had to scale it back to twice a month because we were running out of food,” O’Toole says. “It is a scary situation.”
A majority of EFAA’s shoppers are employed. “Some of these folks are working two or three jobs,” O’Toole says. “We stay open until 7 p.m., two nights a week so working families can shop.
“We see a lot of kids who come through with their moms right around three to four o'clock,” he continues. “We have little kid-sized shopping carts for them. We also try to have healthy snacks available for them so the moms can shop in peace.”
Help nonprofits feed the whole neighborhood
EFAA encourages donations at its North Boulder facility. Needs range from manual can openers, boxed cake mix with frosting and candles and breakfast cereal to boxed milk and juice, masa and corn husks for tamales. See the current list at efaa.org.
Consider making a financial contribution to one or more Boulder County food organizations on Colorado Gives Day, Dec. 10, when some gifts are matched by grants: coloradogives.org.
Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA): efaa.org
Sister Carmen Community Center: sistercarmen.org
Boulder Food Rescue: boulderfoodrescue.org
Longmont Food Rescue: longmontfoodrescue.org
Harvest of Hope Pantry: hopepantry.org
Community Food Share: communityfoodshare.org
Nederland Food Pantry: nederlandfoodpantry.org
OUR Center: ourcenter.org
MASA Seed Foundation: masaseedfoundation.org