HUNGER HEROES: JOHNSTOWN BACKPACK PROGRAM
The Johnstown YMCA, in collaboration with the Weld RE-5J School District and the Roosevelt High School Interact Club, runs the Hunger Heroes backpack program.
This program is an initiative that uplifts food-insecure youth in the Weld School District RE-5J. Each week, volunteers work with the Weld County Food Bank to secure enough food to provide between 150-200 elementary, middle and high school students with needed nutrition over the weekend, when school is not in session. Y staff and local volunteers organize and assemble bags of food that are then delivered to each school.
So far in the 2025-26 school year, the Johnstown Y will provide more than 12,000 free meals to students through the backpack program.
FOOD PROJECT FARM
Walking up to the Longmont Y, one of the first things you’ll notice is a small farm nestled on the border of the property. It may seem out of place in this urban setting, but this garden is an integral part of the community. The Food Project Farm helps provide fresh fruits and vegetables to an area that is considered a food desert, a USDA-designated area where food is non-existent, unhealthy or too expensive.
When the neighborhood surrounding the YMCA in Longmont was declared a food desert, the staff at the Y decided to start applying for grants to turn the unused land on their property into a garden. The garden opened in 2010.
However, in 2016 the YMCA partnered with Growing Gardens, a local nonprofit whose mission is to enrich the Boulder Valley community through sustainable urban agriculture by helping people to experience a direct and deep connection with plants, the land and each other. As a result of the partnership, the Food Project Farm has harvested up to 12,000 pounds of produce annually for the last several years. All of that produce was donated to local charities that help feed thousands of Longmont residents in need.
The Food Project Farm is a driving force to unite the community in Longmont. Volunteers work on the farm to learn about organic and sustainable farming and to build a stronger sense of community. Children from YMCA Inspire Preschool and Y after-school programs learn where their food comes from and they can taste and prepare fresh healthy snacks from the farm.
Each your, thousands of individuals have benefitted from the farm, whether they received produce grown on the farm, volunteered or participated in one of the free educational program offered. Hundreds of volunteers give thousands of hours of their time to help make the farm successful and feed their community.
The farm also offers a Horticultural Therapy Program, where the participants are young people on the autism spectrum. Working in the garden and greenhouse helps them to develop life and employment skills after high school.