Even after the federal government reopened and released food-assistance funding, Coloradans are still turning to local food pantries to put food on the table.

State officials recently added $1.2 million to this year’s Community Food Grants program to help five Feeding Colorado food banks purchase food in bulk and deliver it to hunger-relief partners throughout the state.

One such recipient is the pantry operated by the North 40 Mountain Alliance, which serves communities near Red Feather Lakes. Alliance Director Darlene Kilpatrick said that money is critical to meet growing demand.

“We have families that both parents are working,” said Kilpatrick. “They’re struggling to get by. Or someone has lost their job and they have no money for food. To be able to offer food to give him that sense of security and hope can be life-changing.”

The Community Food Grants program established by the Colorado General Assembly last year is administered by Provecho Collective, formerly known as the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, in partnership with the Colorado Department of Human Services.

It provides funding for food pantries and food banks to purchase and distribute healthy, culturally relevant foods, while strengthening Colorado’s local food economy.

Kilpatrick said the government shutdown and the loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits - combined with rising grocery store prices - has put additional stress on food-assistance providers that are already stretched thin.

“We did apply for some federal funding, and those funds were frozen,” said Kilpatrick. “The food bank that we go to, they have higher increased needs, and so they have less food that they have available to us.”

Greta Zukauskaite, the grants manager for the Provecho Collective, said more than 190 food pantries applied for this year’s grants, asking for a total of $3.3 million.

The 64 food pantries selected, many in rural parts of the state with less access to services than metro areas, received a combined total of $500,000. She said much of that money will help support local farmers and ranchers.

“And that’s an opportunity to stock the shelves with the more local produce, the more nutritious food, eggs, dairy,” said Zukauskaite, “those perishable items that are sometimes harder to come by or are not in a pantry’s budget.”

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