“Sometimes, I am surprised by the number of people in our community who are struggling. We all hear about the housing and food insecurity problems on TV or the radio, but it is startling to actually see, up close, the extent of the problem in the Denver metro area.  I worry about the winter and how people will manage the cold.”—JFS Mobile Food Pantry volunteer Marian

While the new state-of-the-art JFS Mobile Food Pantry is expected to be completed in February, the interim temporary vehicle has been busy providing food assistance in areas of need for those facing food insecurity. The truck travels to Denver neighborhoods and housing complexes with high percentages of food insecurity and community and recreation centers.

JFS volunteer Marian began working with JFS in 2020 during the pandemic. “I worked in distribution a few times and then switched to being the traffic volunteer with a great crew of other volunteers,” she shared. Currently, Marian volunteers three days a week at the mobile pantry, along with helping to input data from the customer applications from the mobile pantry.

The Mobile Pantry started from scratch, and through trial and error, JFS’s remarkable team is finding sites that provide the most benefit to the most people in need.

We know that removing transportation barriers ensures families experiencing food insecurity have continued access to healthy, fresh, and culturally relevant foods and information about the programs and services JFS provides.

“The mobile pantry is a very needed, worthwhile program. We are reaching people who can't get to the grocery stores or the main pantry. I'm not sure if the general public really understands the issue of food deserts in the city. There are a lot of neighborhoods that have only one store to serve several miles. Lots of people don't have reliable transportation to and from the store.”

You can help the more than 150 families who are coming to our JFS Weinberg Food Pantry and using the Mobile Food Pantry.