17 MARCH 5-11, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | The Faces of Food Justice THESE ACTIVISTS ARE WORKING TO FILL DENVER’S FOOD DESERTS. BY C HRISTEN B. ALDRIDGE Even with tight budgeting and regular visits to food banks and pantries, Natasha “Tasha” Carter fi nds it hard to provide nutritious, healthy and affordable meals for her family. “Some days, things align for us and we have stuff, but since I have three kids, food goes fast,” says Carter, whose children range in age from fi ve to twenty; all three are neurodivergent. “Fresh fruit, vegetables and meat don’t last.” When all else fails, she relies on the free dinners for youth at Denver recreation cen- ters and free lunches at her younger chil- dren’s school to bridge the gap. Anything to keep her family fed. “They’re not the biggest fans of school lunches, but I don’t have the ability to send them with other things or have an extra snack, outside of home,” Carter says. Since she was injured in major car accidents in 2014 and 2015, Carter has lived on a modest disability check, but money got even tighter during the pandemic, when her disability checks increased about 3 percent at the end of 2020, just enough for her to lose her govern- ment food assistance through the Supplemen- tal Nutrition Assistance Program. “On paper, we meet the guidelines, but for some reason on the application, they deny us,” says Carter. The challenges with food insecurity that Carter faces almost daily have been in the spotlight in recent months, as the govern- ment shutdown interrupted the distribu- tion of SNAP benefi ts to tens of millions of people in November. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 47 million Americans don’t have suffi cient access to food to meet their basic needs. In Colorado, that number is nearly 745,000 people, including 172,540 children, data from Feeding America indicates. While the shutdown focused a spotlight on this issue, dozens of organizations in Colorado have been working to address it for years. Here are some of the food justice warriors fi ghting on the frontlines to combat food insecurity in the Centennial State. Gelli’s Community Fridge December 22, 2020, was the worst day of Lisa Ridenour’s life. That’s when her oldest daughter, Giselle, died in her Littleton apart- ment at the age of 24 after an accidental drug overdose, leaving behind a 16-month-old daughter, Ara. “She was a bright light and a force of nature,” says Ridenour of “Gelli,” fi ghting back tears. Overwhelmed by grief, she knew she needed to do something to clear her mind and give back to the community. So Ridenour, who works as a federal child-support specialist and volunteers as a victim advocate, decided to put her daughter’s love of food and her com- passionate heart into something that would support drug users on their road to recovery. In 2023, she offi cially turned her pain into pur- pose and founded Gelli’s Community Fridge, a non-profi t organization that provides public access to refrigerators and pantries stocked with food 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for anyone who needs it, no questions asked. “There is something about supporting people, being there for them during one of the worst times they’ll ever experience, that feels like both a privilege and a responsibility, to witness someone’s pain and help shoulder it, even if just for a moment,” she says. “To feel that way about the support we provide to those who use our fridges and pantries, too, has given me a sense of purpose that nothing else can match.” The fi rst location was at Ruby Market on South Pearl Street. “In the two years that fridge and pantry were there, there were so many people using it that we refi lled it four times a day, and it still went empty in between refi lls,” remembers Ridenour. “And we moved prob- ably over 12,000 meals through that fridge, in addition to tens of thousands of pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables and bakery items and shelf-stable food.” Unfortunately, Rid- enour was forced to close the location after neighboring businesses complained about unhoused people congregating in the area. Today, Gelli’s Community Fridge has four locations: Valor at the Fax, a 72-unit affordable apartment complex for people who have suffered brain injuries; Bridge House in Englewood, a nonprofi t that of- fers programming and resources for adults experiencing homelessness; the Arapahoe County Jail; and Behavioral Health Group Treatment Center, a medication-assisted treatment facility in Westminster. “These are locations where anybody can come by and drop off extra food they buy at the grocery store, or you can clean out your pantry,” Carter says. “This reciprocity hap- pens between people that have resources and people that don’t. I think it’s really beautiful.” Gelli’s Community Fridge needs to be restocked constantly, and even with donated food, it costs about $1,500 a month to keep each location full. “We also have an amazing village of donors who provide critical cash donations, which allows us to purchase ad- ditional food from membership warehouses to supplement what we receive from those other sources,” she says. “I can’t express how deeply grateful I am for the generosity of our donors.” Those donors include Whole Foods and Rebel Bread, along with Cafe 180, a nonprofi t restaurant in Englewood that contributes proceeds from meal purchases; Gelli’s was also recently approved to receive food from We Don’t Waste. Ridenour also receives donations from food drives organized by local schools or businesses, including her granddaughter’s school. “The idea of a community fridge is that it creates community, not just for people who need food, but for people who can afford to help with that,” she says. The project has become a family affair: Now six-year-old Ara helps stock the community fridge, and Rid- enour’s 24-year-old daughter, Jean, works at the Valor at the Fax location. “From the very beginning, our family and friends have supported my vision,” Ridenour says. “They’ve donated large amounts of food and fi nancial resources, helped spread the word about our mission, and provided endless encouragement, ideas, connections and moral support.” In fact, Giselle’s father designed and built the fi rst outdoor community fridge, shed and pantry, and the whole family helped paint it. “It’s taken a village to see this dream come to life, and it’s deeply meaningful to all of us to see how much it’s helped others,” Ridenour says. “Giselle would be so proud.” The grand opening of the Behavioral Health Group Treatment Center fell on De- cember 22, the anniversary of Gelli’s death. “This one is really special to me. Since I fi rst had this wild idea of creating a nonprofi t community fridge in Giselle’s memory, I always envisioned having them at treatment centers,” Ridenour says. “I continually see and feel her in everything we do.” Stedman Elementary Market The lessons of food insecurity play out daily at schools. That’s what inspired the leader- ship at Stedman Elementary School in Park Hill to launch the Stedman Market in 2024 to meet the needs of its 400-plus students and their families. Using a Healthy Foods for Denver Kids grant – funded by a small sales tax increase to support healthy food access and nutrition education for Denver youth – and the help of Food Bank of the Rockies, the school created a free food market. Today, about thirty families use the market daily, according to Lindsay Hieb, family liaison and a Stedman mom herself. “We’re providing relief, knowing that they do have a place that is available to them and is accessible throughout the day, fi ve days a week, and knowing that they can come in and shop and get what they need,” she says. The school also has a community garden run by students who’ve taken classes led by SustainEd Farms, a nonprofi t that partners with schools to teach sustainability and nutrition through hands-on farming. “What makes us unique is that we also provide snacks for the students and oversee the gar- den,” says Hieb. “And so being confi ned and being just an addition within the school al- lows us to be open during the school hours.” Watching the market serve as a critical resource for Stedman families and the nearby community during the government shutdown was heartwarming for the modest team of vol- unteers who keep the operation running, she says. It also served as an important reminder that their work is a critical resource. “I’ve heard families come in and say, ‘This helps me get to the next week,’” Hieb adds. “So I feel like it provides a little bit of relief, so they didn’t have to worry as much.” Kaizen Food Rescue A former refugee, Thai Nguyen knows what it’s like to be hungry and CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS Lisa Ridenour stands by an open community fridge. COURTESY GELLI’S COMMUNIT Y FRIDGE continued on page 18
