Meet Professionals Who Support Their Colorado Communities Through Food
In partnership with: Colorado Department of Agriculture
For a few Colorado professionals, the sixth love language is food as they strive to make fresh food accessible.
Aloha Fresh Food
Raised on a Hawaiian coffee and nut farm, Seraphina Hunter didn’t think twice about subsisting off her mother’s garden.
“Our household valued living off the land,” Hunter says. “Now, this drives my passion to enhance fresh food access for everyone.”
As part-time market coordinator for the Palisade Sunday Farmer’s Market, Hunter and her team connect more than 5,000 customers with local growers, artisans and food truck vendors.
“Fostering a direct farmer-to-consumer exchange increases the sustainability of our farmers, as well as the quality of food on families’ tables,” Hunter says.
The market has won awards from 2023 America’s Farmers Market Celebration, The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and USA Today.
See more: Colorado’s Top 10 Agricultural Commodities
A Spoonful of Local
Families grapple with the question “What’s for dinner?” Joy Rubey, a former architect turned farmer’s wife and working parent, sought healthy meal planning and preparing strategies for her busy family.
“I began to question what we eat, how we grow food, how we build food resiliency and how we leave a healthier planet for future generations,” Rubey says.
In 2011, she developed Acme Farms & Kitchen, a meal kit service that sold $24 million worth of local food in the Pacific Northwest. Then, in 2022, Rubey launched Spade & Spoon, which delivered 47,000 meals last year in Colorado.
Unlike other brands, Spade & Spoon collaborates with 60 local farmers, ranchers and bakers for better food quality, stable markets, fair prices and distribution – all without a subscription.
“Families across the Front Range can enjoy tasty, deeply nourishing foods with each meal supporting local producers,” Rubey says. “We care how food is produced, how people and animals are treated, and the impact we have on our planet – now and in the future.”
See more: Colorado Organizations Address Food Accessibility Issues Created by Food Deserts
Through the Generations
The future is a focus for Gary Baysinger, owner of Mountain Meat Packing Inc., which has sites in Craig and Fruita on Colorado’s Western Slope. The facilities process beef, swine, lamb and goat, and offer voluntary inspection for elk, yak and buffalo.
Mountain Meat Packing partners with food bank programs, such as Farm 2 Food Pantry, to increase food access.
Baysinger acknowledges that “old school” butchers who can fully break down a carcass, which limits waste, are a dying breed.
“We’re now a three-generation, family-owned business with our fourth generation working here,” he says. “These grandsons will, hopefully, carry on the torch.”