Nourish Colorado

“The form 990 is initially reviewed by the finance committee of the board of directors and then provided to the board of directors for approval prior to submission.”

“Board and staff members are required to review and sign the conflict of interest policy. At each board meeting, the board members are asked if any new conflicts of interest have arisen. The board members recuse themselves from voting if any conflicts of interest exist.”

“Initial ceo compensation was set in 2016 by the executive committee of the board of directors with the use of surveys from well-established sources, including the employers council (ec) survey as a primary local source, and ceo compensation is reviewed annually by the executive committee. During the annual budget process, management adjusts salaries based upon annual salary survey data from the ec, the bureau of labor statistics and other sources. The president and ceo approves the compensation for vps and key employees. The finance committee of the board of directors reviews and approves the adjustments to the overall personnel budget during the annual budget process.”

“Governing and financial documents and the conflict of interest policy are available upon request.”

“Nourish colorado is a statewide nonprofit organization committed to strengthening connections between farms and communities so that all coloradans have equitable access to fresh, nutritious foods. We pursue systemic changes through state and federal policy advocacy, managing innovative programs, and developing community partnerships and grassroots networks to employ multiple-win strategies that rebalance the food system and create nutritious food environments.”

“Healthy food incentives: in 2024, double up food bucks (dufb) partnered with 110 sites across colorado to support snap shoppers. Participants earned up to 20 per day in additional dollars for colorado-grown fruits, vegetables, and dry beans. Collectively, shoppers redeemed nearly 1 million in incentives statewide. This year also marked the launch of the colorado snap produce bonus (cspb) in partnership with cdhs. To date, cspb includes 41 farmers, 5 brick-and- mortar retailers, and 36 direct-to-consumer outlets (farmers markets, farm stands, and on-farm stores). Through this program, snap shoppers can receive up to 60 per month in additional benefits when purchasing fruits and vegetables at participating sites. Colorado nutrition incentive program highlights: - distributed 225,000 in fresh produce by directly partnering with 27 farmers and aggregators. In total, 111 farms were impacted through direct contracts or aggregator partnerships. - served wic participants and older adults through 27 agencies across 21 counties, including the southern ute and ute mountain ute nations. - invested over 340,580 into the colorado food economy through hyperlocal food purchases. The majority of food was grown and distributed within the same or neighboring counties. - distributed more than 63,546 pounds of food statewide. - over 80% of participants reported eating more fruits and vegetables because of the program.”

“Nutrition food education: nourish colorado's nutrition education team implemented statewide cooking matters programming to improve healthy eating behaviors and reduce food insecurity among snap-eligible coloradans. Programming combined direct education, policy, systems, and environmental change strategies, and technology-based innovations to reach colorado communities, including urban, rural, frontier, and tribal populations. Through partnerships with over 20 community-based organizations, nourish provided in-person and online cooking matters curricula, engaging more than 4,000 participants across colorado. Additional efforts supported healthy food access initiatives in pantries, retail settings, farmers markets, and produce prescription programs, ensuring that making the healthy choice was the easy choice. Evaluation tools and state reporting systems were used to maintain programs.”

“Healthy food in institutions: following the passage of proposition ff in november 2022, our team entered 2023 with a clear focus: to prepare a comprehensive plan in anticipation of the upcoming request for proposals from the colorado department of education (cde). Our goal was to position ourselves as the statewide training and technical assistance provider for the local food program (lfp). Throughout 2023, we dedicated time and resources to building a strategic response to the anticipated contract, which was expected to be released in spring 2024. However, in january 2024, we received unexpected news. Due to a significant increase in the number of students accessing free meals, funding priorities shifted. The statewide lfp contract-and all associated grants-were put on hold to ensure that every child could continue receiving meals at no cost. This development meant that not only was the statewide program paused, but additional funding for schools to purchase local food was no longer available. In june 2024, cde informed us that our existing lfp technical assistance contract would be extended for another year. This allowed us to continue supporting school districts already participating in the program. By august, 32 new districts were awarded year 4 lfp grants, and we expanded our support to include them alongside the year 3 cohort. Finally, in october 2024, our year 4 lfp ta contract with cde was officially approved, and 150,000 in funding was released. With this support, we continued our work with the 32 participating districts, ensuring they had the guidance and resources needed to successfully implement the program through september 2025.”

“Through our healthy food policy work, nourish colorado advances comprehensive federal and state level policy agendas that support a just and nutritious food system. We manage the food bill action team, which meets virtually monthly and includes market managers, state leaders, and community members who are focused on learning about policy and brainstorming new ideas that could be implemented through federal and state legislation. I n 2024, we worked with state legislators and the governor's office to secure additional funds for the local food program for schools, and created a permanent state program, the healthy food incentive program. Additionally, nourish traveled multiple times to washington dc to meet with the offices of federal legislators and secured co-sponsorships from several members of the colorado delegation on bills to support snap incentives, senior nutrition programs, and local food systems”

“Contract services 922,701 29,881 33,030”