Anniversary campaign launches with commemoration of trail-blazing founder
LARIMER COUNTY — In a 900-square-foot building on 216 E. Oak Street in Fort Collins, Sandy Bowden turned a need in her community into action.
On June 1, 1984, she opened what was then called the Larimer County Food Distribution Center with the aim to create a centralized food acquisition and distribution center. The idea was to help under-resourced human services organizations efficiently get nutrition out into the community.
Sandy had few tools at her disposal. But with a card table, folding chair, telephone and only $100 in the bank, her leadership, as the Food Bank’s earliest executive director and founder, would grow humble roots into an operation that today feeds more than 40,000 people annually.
This year, the Food Bank celebrates its 40th birthday. To mark the milestone, the Food Bank is launching a year-long campaign that will celebrate its pride in distributing food that has provided so much more than nutrition.
Food brings us all together. A home-cooked meal can be a message of love and comfort. A recipe shared is culture passed to a new generation. Food is a reason to gather. It is a way to create memories, mark milestones, and share laughter. Everyone deserves these experiences and to have enough to eat so that they can thrive.
As part of the campaign, stay tuned to catch stories celebrating food, shared through our website and social media channels. The Food Bank is also in the planning stages of creating a community celebration to mark this important milestone.
As Food Bank leaders look ahead, they’ll also be looking back at storied roots.
Bowden’s call to open a food bank started when she was an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer conducting a survey to determine the nutritional needs of the marginalized. What it showed was a whole lot of food waste. The agencies to get the food out were there, but they needed a centralized location for storage and acquisition. Bowden noticed these agencies were using limited time and funds just to locate food and that there was no efficient system in place to get them food variety. One agency may be overflowing with bread, but have no meat, while another agency may be struggling to get any food at all.
Sandy, who died in September, 2023 at 81, was a trail blazer in fighting food insecurity and preventing food waste. She used multiple sources to get food. She worked with local grocery stores to glean high-quality food that otherwise would be wasted. She rallied local churches to host food drives and led droves of volunteers to clip coupons from newspapers and magazines. Volunteers taped the coupons to grocery store items and the store would give the coupon’s value back to the Food Bank, raising thousands of dollars.
By harnessing the power of the community, Sandy believed everyone who needed food could get food.
“In a country of plenty, we should be aware of those who are hungry and eliminate this hunger,” Sandy told the Coloradoan in 1985. “It is within our power to see that no one in Larimer County goes hungry. It is up to each of us as individuals to make this happen.”
With this same vision in mind, the Food Bank has grown and adapted to increase its reach to fight food insecurity. In 2023, alone, the Food Bank distributed more than 10 million pounds of food.
Today it provides food to Larimer County across multiple programs, including two brick-and-mortar no-cost markets and a Nutritious Kitchen which makes meals for seniors and kids.
The Food Bank also continues to distribute food to a network of nonprofit partners — more than 120 partners today —allowing food to reach rural and remote parts of the county. Staff also provide resources through numerous outreach endeavors, including free cooking classes and a team that assists people in signing up for SNAP benefits.
As the Food Bank marks its 40-year milestone, it will be taking pride in all the ways it has stepped up to fight hunger and it will be encouraging the community to get involved. Whether it’s volunteering 40 hours or donating $40, you can help us distribute food to Larimer County neighbors.
“I think when you give, it returns back to you in other ways,” Sandy told the Coloradoan in 1990. “Today may be a day you can donate and next week may be a week that you need donations.”
Learn more about the Food Bank’s 40th anniversary at foodbank40.org.
