Thank You for Donating to this Year’s Cans Around the Oval

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A huge thank you to everyone who donated to this year’s Cans Around the Oval event and once again to CSU for going above and beyond to support the Food Bank for Larimer County and its hunger-relief efforts.

The annual event wrapped up on Wednesday, October 16, with Can Collection Day, where food donations circled the entire Oval as a visual representation of how much can be done to fight hunger when an entire community steps up and works together to collect food and funds. Once sorted, all the food will be distributed primarily to the Food Bank’s community partners, while the monetary donations will be used to fund Food Bank programs like its Fresh Food Share pantries and Nutritious Kitchen

Cans began in 1986 with one graduate student, Victoria Keller. As manager of the original student engagement office, Keller read a journalism student’s proposal of a canned food drive, which sparked the fire for Cans Around the Oval. Keller, wanting to pursue the proposal, contacted the Food Bank’s then Director, Sandy Bowden, who coined the name Cans Around the Oval. Although Sandy was too busy to be involved that first year, Keller and two other students decided to take on the efforts of orchestrating Cans Around the Oval.

Cans Around the Oval has grown to become a Colorado State University tradition, where students, faculty, and staff partner with community members, local media, and area businesses to raise awareness about the issue of hunger, as well as raise food and monetary donations.

In the more than three decades since Cans Around the Oval began, it has evolved to become one of the largest food drives in Larimer County, resulting in more than 2 million donated meals.

Click here to learn more about Cans Around the Oval.

A Generous $250,000 Match is Helping Us Feed Our Future

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In May of 2018, the Food Bank for Larimer County achieved a major milestone when we moved our distribution center and business office to a new facility in Loveland. It was a landmark move for the Food Bank, allowing us to source more food with considerably more dry, cooler and freezer storage. More importantly, with the improved cooler and freezer space, it allowed us to source more of the right food – more fresh produce, fruits and proteins. 

Now that we have been in the new facility for a period of time, the perception might be that we have reached our goal. In reality, the move to the new location wasn’t the end of a process, but just the beginning. We have ambitious goals around providing food to those in need, and connecting our clients with services that can improve their lives. This is the motivation behind the Feeding Our Future campaign:

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Partnerships

Working with our agency partners to provide food, but also looking at new ways to support partner growth. We realize that solving food insecurity requires many organizations scaling to meet the need.

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Looking at new food delivery models to increase access to food in areas previously underserved, like our rural communities. Our mobile pantries and food truck are examples of non-traditional ways of getting food to those in need.

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Providing fresh, nutritious food to clients – yes, but also sharing tools to help them maximize the food they receive. Our newly launched Cooking Matters program partners with Share Our Strength to teach parents with limited food budgets to shop for and cook healthy meals.

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Educating our clients and the community as a whole about available services, like SNAP, also known as food stamps. SNAP provides food such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains to low-income individuals and families and our goal is to educate people about the benefits of the program and how to enroll.

How You Can Help

Thanks to the support of corporations, foundations, local governments and individual donors, the Food Bank has raised more than $8 million of the $9 million goal. Now we are asking the community to help us reach our goal and to help us fund our future.

As a part of the campaign, there is a board-directed $250,000 match. This means that any donation designated for the campaign, up to $250,000, will be matched. This is a great way for your gift to do even more in the community, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

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