At Integrated Family Community Services, or IFCS, in the southern part of the Denver metro area, there’s a small window on Monday afternoon to shop at their market. Peppers and cucumbers are available at the food bank, but there’s a lot of empty space on the shelves. It’s been this way since the pandemic, said Executive Director Sandra Blythe-Perry, and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to let up anytime soon.
“We need help so that we can keep the doors open,” Blythe-Perry told CBS Colorado. “I am just clawing and scraping to find funding anywhere I can.”
A lot of the nonprofit world was upended during the pandemic, in which massive amounts of money were made available to help the general public. But once the funding dried up, food banks and other nonprofits became increasingly reliant on outside funding sources. At IFCS, Blythe-Perry explained, roughly 95% of food that came in pre-pandemic was donated. Now, 95% of the food is purchased through partner organizations like Food Bank of the Rockies, with the funding made possible by an army of donors, big and small…