Walnart, Sam’s Club and other donors have joined with the Food Bank of the Rockies to address growing food insecurity in western Colorado.

Donors provide surplus food that  in turn provides meals for those who rely on the food bank.

“We have a tremendous partnership with Walmart and Sam’s Club. They’re our biggest food rescue partner,” said Sue Ellen Rodwick, Western Slope director for Food Bank of the Rockies. “Annually, they donate over 2.5 million pounds of food for our Western Slope service area, the equivalent of 1.6 million meals that we’re able to capture and redistribute to our hunger relief partners.”

The Food Rescue Program network of donors on the Western Slope includes more than 180 retail locations.
The process works in several ways. Hunger relief partners pick up surplus food directly from retail locations. Donations from partners across the food supply chain also are either trucked to Food Bank of the Rockies distribution center or picked up by food rescue program drivers and made available for hunger relief partners to order.

Walmart and Sam’s Club are giving shoppers in Colorado and across the country the opportunity to lend support to those experiencing food insecurity through the Fight Hunger Spark Change campaign running through April 29.

Shoppers can donate at checkout, purchase select products in stores or online or donate to the campaign online through the websites located at FeedingAmerica.org/Walmart or FeedingAmerican/SamsClub. Now in its 11th year, the campaign has secured millions of meals for Colorado residents experiencing hunger.

“The food rescue program is vitally important. It represents 55 percent of all the food that the Food Bank of the Rockies distributes,” Rodwick said.

Trica Ricca, a manager at a Sam’s Club store, said the program offers a win-win opportunity.

“It allows my friends, my family and my neighbors to be able to go to a food pantry and get the food they need — that we have donated — to sustain their families,” Ricca said.

Across the Western Slope, attendance at Food Bank of the Rockies mobile pantries has increased 190 percent compared to a year ago. By one estimate, one in 11 people faces food insecurity, including one in nine children.