Dear Friends of Food For Thought Denver,

It’s August, so it must be……BACK TO SCHOOL time! It’s the time of year we can’t wait for because we look forward to filling all those little bellies and to seeing the smiling faces of all our volunteers! Our volunteer calendar for the year is now available on our website!

FFT is SO proud to announce that on August 30, when we pack our first PowerSacks of the school year, we’ll be serving over 10,000 students at 37 Denver area schools! Your generous gifts of time and financial support have made this possible.  

This year we will pack all PowerSacks at two locations. The MSU location, located at 1600 W. Colfax, Denver CO 80204, across the street from the entrance to the MSU Regency Athletic Complex  at the southern edge of the MSU campus will continue to be our main hub. All packing at this location takes place outdoors, rain or shine. The second location, FFT East, is at the Roth Living Warehouse located at 16230 E. Airport Circle, Aurora, CO. This beautiful new warehouse provide an indoor packing experience close to I-70 and Airport Rd.  

At each location, there are three different types of volunteer opportunities.  The set-up crew arrives early to help set-up tables and supplies, stage food for assembly lines etc. Most set-up volunteers then stay to help pack food during the packing session. PowerSack volunteers show up at 7am and a brief orientation will explain the purpose of FFT and how the packing session will work. The trucking crews will help load and deliver the PowerSacks to students at the school locations we serve.

Our most critical volunteer need at both locations is for help with our trucking crews. This volunteer opportunity begins at 6am at MSU and 6:30am at FFT EAST. Trucking volunteers will help load bins of PowerSacks onto the trucks and then follow the trucks to nearby schools to help unload and distribute bins to each classroom. This job requires using handtrucks and heavy lifting. This volunteer opportunity should be wrapped up no later than 10am (hopefully earlier).

We are using a volunteer management system this year called Helping Habit and we really need your help to make it work. As you know, FFT is a 100% volunteer organization, so even our volunteer coordinators are volunteers ☺ It is critical to our ability to raise funding through grants and corporate donors to be able to demonstrate just how many volunteers make FFT possible. The only way we can do this is if we have a way to record each and every volunteer hour! Please help us eliminate paper sign-in sheets by registering in advance for your volunteer shifts on the FFT website at or directly on the Helping Habit site. 

The first time you visit the site, you will need to register your email address. You have the option to download the Helping Habit app (iPhones only through the App Store) or you can access your account via the internet on your computer or phone. After that you should be able to sign in and choose your spots easily! Even if you are one of our very regular volunteers, we are asking you to do this for us to make our organization stronger. If you will take a moment to sign up for your shifts, all you need to do when you get to a FFT location is make sure your location services are enabled on your iPhone, and you will be automatically checked in! This will save us hours of manual entry and make a nicer check-in experience for you, too.

If all of the spots at your desired location or on your desired date are full, please consider helping on another date or at a different location when and where we still need help. If all sites are full, please check back or send us an email at volunteer@foodforthoughtdenver.org. Our volunteer needs are constantly changing and chances are good we’ll be able to schedule you in for someone else who has a last minute conflict. 

It is also important for us to be able to get a hold of you in case of a weather event or some other unexpected happening. The only way we know if you are planning to come help is if you sign up!

Once again, THANK YOU for your support and your patience as we continue to grow! In 2018/19 the value of the time our volunteers spent helping FFT was $354, 443!  We look forward to your feedback and another awesome school year of serving the young students in our community who so need our help. You are our most valuable partner in this endeavor and we truly appreciate each and every one of you!

With thanks and gratitude,

The Food For Thought Denver Team