info@mountainrootsfoodproject.org PO Box 323 Gunnison, CO 81230
Access & Outreach
Mountain Roots Access & Outreach works specifically with under-served audiences (such as low-income and minority populations), with community partners, groups, and individuals to build and revitalize our local community by offering these people access to nutritious, affordable food that is regionally based, sustainably produced, and culturally appropriate in ways which meet their specific needs. The program supports activities that build individual and community self-reliance, foster social justice, promote cultural integration, and preserve farmable land.
ABOUT FOOD SECURITY
According to the Community Food Security Coalition, Community food security is “a condition in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice.” --Mike Hamm and Anne Bellows
Another way to say this is: People are considered to be food-secure when they do not live in fear of hunger.
We work to address low-income food needs, which are not just about getting food, but getting the right foods, and knowing what to do with them. We build our community food systems, which are suffering from over development, endangered environment, disappearing family farms, rural community disintegration, air and water pollution.
Our projects engage community members building resources to meet their own needs, creating a more self-reliant, empowered community.
The highest aim of this program’s work is that more people in the community feel that they can actualize their dreams, and meet their own needs. We believe that when local food systems are supported and able to expand, local huger issues will decline and local health will improve. By cultivating healthy, engaged citizens, we create a community where residents from all socio-economic backgrounds feel safe, confident, valued, and connected to place and each other. Community integration and increased understanding occurs as community members of different socio-economic backgrounds enjoy learning and working together, and people are less affected by poverty because they are able to meet their food needs without the requisite transaction of money.
OUR VISION
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•Community members feel safe, confident, valued, and connected to place and to each other
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•Community members of different socio-economic, age, and cultural backgrounds enjoy learning and working together in the gardens
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•Local food systems are supported and able to expand
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•People are less affected by poverty because they are able to meet their food needs without the requisite transaction of money
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•Local hunger issues decline
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•Individual and community health and nutrition improve
Farmer’s Markets,
Food Donations, CSA,
and Wholesale
building food security
reaching new audiences
tuition assistance
for adults or youth in garden- or food-related courses
Mountain Roots Food Project is a component fund of the Community Foundation for the Gunnison Valley