Extreme heat at a Colorado airshow caused about 100 people to seek emergency treatment and sent 10 people to area hospitals on Saturday, officials said.

The majority of patients were treated by emergency personnel onsite at the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow, the Colorado Springs Fire Department said in a statement posted on social media.

Colorado Springs Fire Chief Randy Royal said the “quick actions” of organizers and emergency officials prevented serious injuries at the event held at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.

The airshow’s website indicated tickets were sold out for both days of the event on Saturday and Sunday, featuring performances by the famed U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight exhibition team and displays of various types of modern and vintage aircraft.

A post on the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow Instagram account advised attendees, “PLEASE remember to stay hydrated during this hot weather. There is a FREE water station at the center of the grounds near the medical station.”

The National Weather Service in Pueblo had issued a heat advisory warning of anticipated temperatures between 93 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the area on Saturday afternoon.

The advisory remained in effect for El Paso County and Pueblo County for Sunday between noon and 7 p.m., the weather service said.

The fire department warned attendees of the airshow’s second day to prepare with water bottles, hats, sunscreen and umbrellas.

“Tomorrow will be hot again and we ask everyone to please stay hydrated, be prepared for hot temperatures, and please stay safe,” Royal said.

Nearly three weeks after the Alexander Mountain fire started west of Loveland, U.S. Forest Service officials have declared the wildfire to be 100% contained.

The fire, which started July 29 and is being investigated as human-caused, was completely contained Saturday, the Forest Service said on social media. 

At the peak, 625 personnel were on scene fighting the fire, which destroyed 51 structures and burned 9,668 acres in Larimer County north of the Big Thompson Canyon. The U.S. Forest Service has been in command of the fire scene after the Southwest Incident Management Team 1 returned control Aug. 9 when the fire was at 91% containment.

The fire destroyed 26 homes and damaged at least four others, according to a report by the Larimer County Assessor’s Office. Twenty-one outbuildings were also destroyed.

Firefighters will continue to monitor the burn area, which is mostly on U.S. Forest Service land, as the Burned Area Emergency Response team continues to search for areas at risk of mudslides or flash flooding in the future.

“The Forest (Service) wants to recognize both the hard work as well as the stress and difficulty of the past three weeks,” acting Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests & Pawnee National Grassland Supervisor Jason Sieg said in a social post Saturday night. “There are members of the Cedar Park community who lost property and homes, and we will support them as best we can alongside our community partners and local agencies. We also want to thank the numerous agencies, partners, fire personnel and community members who stepped up to help in our joint coordination with Larimer County and Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control. This was a team effort.”

U.S. Forest Service wildland investigators are working with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office to chase clues on who may have started the fire, even if it wasn’t intentional. They think the fire started between 10:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. July 29. Anyone with information about the start of the fire can call the Forest Service’s tip line at 303-275-5266. 

Alexander Mountain is one of three Front Range wildfires being investigated as human-caused and ignited in the last week of July. 

Arson investigators are still looking into the cause of the Quarry fire, which grew to nearly 580 acres in a highly-populated area of Jefferson County before firefighters got the perimeter fully under control Aug. 7. Federal investigators are also looking into the Stone Canyon fire that destroyed five structures and is linked to one death in Boulder County. It was fully contained Aug. 4 after burning 1,557 acres.

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HUGO — While kids meander among the stacks at the Hugo Public Library, 5-year-old Letty Nuffer sits cross-legged at a table concentrating on her language skills using a borrowed laptop computer that displays a fun video to show her how to pronounce consonant blends.

Thanks to a pilot project in telehealth, Letty can access therapy for her speech delay without a four-hour round trip to Denver for an in-person appointment. By checking out an equipment kit designed to facilitate a wide range of health care consultations, Letty’s mom, Kali Nuffer, can connect directly with her therapist as well as to specially designed video lessons.

The library, already an almost daily destination for Nuffer’s family, now has become the conduit for virtual doctor’s appointments for all four of her kids — just one more service that the facility offers beyond the traditional resources for residents on the Eastern Plains. Kristin Allen, the library’s director, says this year’s addition of telehealth has started to become, well, contagious.

“I’ve had several people recently call and say, ‘How can I do this? How can I get one of those kits?’” she says. “Just come down and get a library card. That’s all you need.” 

For many Coloradans, today’s library card unlocks a lot more than books or even an ever-expanding array of digital material available from 113 public library jurisdictions across the state — and that’s particularly significant for relatively far-flung rural communities whose smaller systems account for nearly 75% of the total.

The way libraries serve the public has evolved significantly over the last several years — a trend that only accelerated during the COVID pandemic, says State Librarian Nicolle Davies. She notes that libraries “leaned into technology” for the entire range of patrons, whether that involved teaching grandparents how to use video chat apps, preparing job seekers for a 21st-century workforce or helping kids advance their digital literacy.

“For years, we were really freaked out that everybody identifies us as just books, but we’re so much more,” Davies says. “And the reality is we’ve been in the (digital) space long enough now that we’re comfortable saying, ‘Yeah, we are still about books and we’re about all these other things as well.’ So it’s very surprising when people visit libraries today and find out what we’re doing and what we have, because the perception still can be outdated and antiquated.”

The pandemic necessitated a number of innovations that worked around COVID restrictions, and many of those remain. Davies, who lives in Douglas County, recalls checking out a meat-smoking kit from her local library that came complete with recipes and seasonings. She also checked out an outdoor version of the block-stacking game Jenga for the family to play.

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“There were just so many ways that the library got really creative on how to provide services to people during the pandemic,” she says.

The pandemic also elevated the role of libraries when it came to digital resources like ebooks, audiobooks, streaming movies and music, notes Sherri Baca, executive director of the Pueblo City-County Library District. She said her district reallocated its 2020 budget to pump up funding to digital vendors, embracing the “library at home” concept that meant buying fewer hard-copy books in order to meet the needs of homebound patrons with digital offerings.

“Readers are reading, but the formats are a little different, which is great,” Baca says. “I think that that’s what libraries are supposed to do, move with the times and be very relevant to our users, and get them what they need when they need it.”

That credo has provided scaffolding for public libraries’ ongoing evolution, a transformation forged in times of a devastating virus and deafening political noise — both challenging factors as library workers face burnout on one hand and, on the other, an invigorating reimagining of their role. Pushing back against the headwinds of censorship, libraries have sought to serve as patches in the social safety net, channels closing the distance between patrons and health care, and myriad other functions — while still navigating the shifting demands for information and entertainment in all its digital and analog forms.

Digital content use was escalating even before the pandemic, and COVID ratcheted the demand even higher. But for the Denver Public Library, there’s still high interest not only in bound books, but also older media formats such as CDs and DVDs, which remain popular among those who may not have access to the latest streaming technology.

“We think that’s an equity issue,” says Michelle Jeske, the city librarian and executive director of the Denver Public Library. “A lot of people still don’t have high-speed internet access or may not have great devices for downloading ebooks or streaming videos. Some people might still have a VCR or a Blu-ray player, so we’re still seeing use of those formats. And that’s why we’re continuing to buy or support that part of our collection.”

The specter of censorship

In any format, library collections nationwide have become the target of challenges — some from individuals, others orchestrated by politically motivated groups that have brought issues surrounding intellectual freedom prominently into the public discourse.

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Colorado isn’t without its conflicts, but has been far less affected than many other states. Still, lawmakers in the last legislative session passed a measure designed to reinforce the policies and procedures Colorado’s public libraries employ not only to acquire and use materials, but to deal with challenges to their content. 

James LaRue, executive director of the Garfield County Public Library District, has dealt with more than a thousand such challenges over a career in library management that includes stints as director of the Douglas County libraries as well as with the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. His book “On Censorship” explores the motives behind the challenges, which have come from across the political spectrum, and the dangers of book banning.

“It has gone from the one or two people that get upset by running across something in a library to being more centrally coordinated,” he says, noting that nationally many of the recent objections stemmed from both isolation during the pandemic that pulled some down conspiracy rabbit holes and political strategy aimed at motivating conservatives for the 2022 midterm elections — most often by objecting to books with LGBTQ content. 

Poll after poll says this is a deeply unpopular view, that 70% of either party is opposed to censorship. But why do they keep at it? Because it seems to work. It gets people riled up, and as always in America we are both obsessed with and repelled by sex.

— James LaRue, executive director of the Garfield County Public Library District

“Poll after poll says this is a deeply unpopular view, that 70% of either party is opposed to censorship,” LaRue says. “But why do they keep at it? Because it seems to work. It gets people riled up, and as always in America we are both obsessed with and repelled by sex.”

Although he notes that other states have experienced more frequent challenges, and have seen legislative efforts aimed at even criminalizing anyone who provides access to certain materials, about five states have passed what he calls “anti-censorship legislation.”

“Colorado,” he adds, “is a much happier environment.”

In particular, he notes the new state law’s emphasis on the “request for reconsideration” that challenges must go through that effectively slows the process and prevents knee-jerk reactions. The new law requires that library boards establish a written policy for reconsideration, and lists specific standards that, among several other things, require they consider the perspectives of marginalized groups.

Davies, the state librarian, says that the rancor that spills over from book challenges now appears to have gotten personal. For years, she recalls, surveys on the most trusted professions in America found librarians ranked near the top, along with firefighters. But in the last few years she has been troubled to hear the integrity of her peers disparaged, even if the spitefulness seems less prevalent in Colorado.

“We’re all librarians at the end of the day,” she says, “and so when institutions like the American Library Association are getting challenged, and everybody’s lumping our profession into having this agenda of grooming children and being pedophiles, it’s just been something I never thought I would have seen in this work.” 

The Pueblo district has had a request for reconsideration policy in effect for more than 10 years, and the passage of the new law required them to simply tweak the timeline for how often an item could be reconsidered, Baca says — from once in a 12-month period to once every two years, the most frequent allowed by the law.

Although she welcomes the attention to the issue of censorship, she estimates that in the nine years she’s been with the library system it has received only one or two requests per year for material to be reconsidered.

In Denver, Jeske estimates she sees “zero to one challenge a year — knock on wood.” Even before the new state law, DPL changed its policy to only allow Denver residents to challenge materials to block organized national challenges.

Providing a social safety net

The pandemic proved challenging in many ways, and its aftermath revealed all sorts of societal issues that had always been present but suddenly were exacerbated. Think homelessness, mental health issues and substance abuse, among others. And libraries, particularly in population centers, found themselves nudged to become more engaged when it comes to connecting those in need with social services.

“That’s nothing new, especially for the Denver Public Library being in this urban setting,” Jeske says. “I think the pandemic demonstrated to us and the community how vital we are as a public space and a place of access — for learning, for knowledge, for technology and connection to the world.”

Not to mention for clean water and a restroom.

Since 2015, the Denver Public Library has had at least one social worker on staff to serve that population. That lone hire nine years ago “seemed like a win,” Jeske says, but soon it became clear that one wouldn’t be enough. Now there’s a Community Resources team of at least 10 people, some of them “peer navigators,” people whose experience mirrors those they’re serving.

The team’s training has spilled over to the entire frontline staff so they’re better equipped to handle issues like security, de-escalation, mental health and first aid.

“We’re one of the pioneers in that space,” Jeske says.

Increasing concern over drug abuse at libraries surfaced early last year with a string of suburban Denver library closures over possible contamination from methamphetamine fumes. (There were no reports of patrons affected by exposure.) Contamination became an issue at one branch in the Pueblo district that required action to remediate exposure to the public, Baca says — though fortuitously, the branch was already scheduled to close for renovations. 

But just as libraries have adapted to community needs, they’ve also had to adopt safety measures. In Pueblo, that means installing environmental sensors in the restrooms that monitor the air in real time to detect potential hazards and immediately notify staff.

“A lot of preventative kinds of stuff,” Baca says, “and just being really active in making sure people understand what the library rules are.”

Pueblo’s library system saw another vehicle for meeting the community’s needs. Although most of the district’s facilities are clustered in the city, Baca launched the telehealth pilot in 2,000-population Colorado City, about a half-hour south of the city limits. Kits similar to the ones used in Hugo and elsewhere are available, with the added feature of a hot spot that can provide patrons mobile internet access in an area where service can be lacking — thanks in part to grant money from the Federal Communications Commission during the pandemic.

Pueblo recently received a $250,000 Mellon Foundation grant for a project aimed at collecting digital archives to preserve the local culture and history of areas that may not have the wherewithal to host the material themselves. As the regional hub for this effort, the Pueblo library will be reaching out to communities across southern Colorado to solicit audio, video or photo files that can be uploaded to help maintain the historical record.

She holds out both projects as evidence of the evolving state of public libraries as they match resources with pressing local concerns.

“So it goes back to the social supports,” Baca says. “Where are the gaps? Can the library be relevant?”

Digital literacy, broadband and health

Kieran Hixon suspected something was up when he took part in Gov. Jared Polis’ broadband initiative and learned that rural areas use telehealth at far lower rates than urban centers. The trend seemed counterintuitive, given the scarcity of medical services in rural areas.

A subsequent partnership with the state Office of eHealth Innovation explored melding telehealth services with libraries that, especially in small towns, are considered anchor institutions when it comes to broadband. And it turns out that one of the hurdles to implementing telehealth in those communities is digital literacy. 

Hixon, the rural and small library consultant within the state department of education, saw the gaps and immediately knew libraries could be relevant by combining their core mission — namely literacy, including the digital kind — and their unique ability to provide access to broadband in far-flung locations. He started calling around to small libraries to ask what they thought and found that while some were already hearing about patrons’ health concerns, they didn’t have the resources to assist them. 

“I called this one librarian and she says, ‘People are coming in, and I just don’t know how to help them. And I could sure use help to do it better,’” Hixon says. “I was like, OK, we’re onto something.”  

In partnership with Ashley Heathfield, a telehealth project manager at the Office of eHealth Innovation, Hixon combed data to find the counties with the worst health outcomes that were farthest from medical services. Then they targeted libraries in those counties and sent out an email to see who was interested.

Eventually 17 library jurisdictions, encompassing 24 buildings, signed on to the pilot project, which has been running for less than a year. Early findings include greater use of the in-library spaces than the kits. 

But in Hugo, director Allen began a “soft launch” last spring, and then started spreading the word. Two portable kits have been the most popular, with Allen scanning a barcode just as she would a book to check them out. Patrons normally have 24 to 48 hours to use the kits, though Allen remains flexible. She also fitted a mobile desk that patrons can roll into the library’s board room to use for in-library telehealth appointments with privacy.

Each kit contains a laptop computer with features like headphones with individual volume controls for the hard of hearing and large-print keyboards for the vision impaired, and an ergonomic mouse. It also includes a ring light, scale, blood pressure monitor (including cuff sizes from child to extra large adult), pulse oximeter and forehead thermometer. The kit includes a wireless hot spot to provide an internet connection to a health care provider.

Getting people to realize that libraries are available for more than just books is changing a thought process.

— Kristin Allen, Hugo Public Library director

Allen estimates that the portable kits get checked out five or six times a month, a gradual increase as the area’s “very traditional” population becomes familiar with telehealth as an option and gets used to the idea that their library can be a resource to pursue it.

“Getting people to realize that libraries are available for more than just books is changing a thought process,” Allen says. “They still get surprised when you say, ‘Oh, yeah, you can come in and make copies.’ And then you throw in being able to check out a telehealth kit, and they’re like, ‘A what?’ It’s just a whole new thing for a lot of people to wrap their heads around.”

Librarians going … and coming 

As libraries have undergone mind-bending changes, there’s been some evidence of burnout among librarians even as another generation has embraced the job for new reasons.

Davies, the state librarian, says she’s seen signs of burnout particularly among those frontline staff who deal directly with the public. She also notes what appears to be a mass retirement among those in library leadership roles, though it’s unclear whether that’s a response to librarians coming under attack over issues of content, the overarching lack of civility from the public or just demographics naturally thinning the ranks.

“Regardless of why it’s happening,” she says, “it is happening.” 

But she adds that a lot of younger people have been attracted to librarianship, prompting a spike within some programs as students seek advanced degrees in library and information science, because the shifting role of libraries has in some ways recast the profession as social justice work.

“It’s an equalizer in a community,” Davies says. “It serves everybody.” 

Allen, 44, first worked as an auto insurance claims adjuster in California, but about 14 years ago migrated to Colorado when her company moved its call center to Colorado Springs. She eventually moved to Limon after her husband took a job at the correctional facility outside of town.

With a degree in early childhood education, Allen did day care in her home. She often took her own kids to the Limon Memorial Library for story time with library director Lucille Reimer.

Describing herself as “one of those odd introverts that likes people,” Allen soon found that at the library she was completely in her element, and that comfort zone fed an innate desire to help people. It wasn’t long before Reimer, who needed some extra help, offered her a part-time job. So a few days each week, Allen learned that being a librarian involved a lot more than checking out books.

“It’s a service that you’re providing a community,” she says. “And it just spoke to my heart.”

After about a year, the position overseeing the Hugo library opened up. Reimer urged her understudy to apply. Allen hesitated — she didn’t have that much experience. But Reimer convinced her to take a shot, and she got the job.

It’s part-time, like many library jobs in rural areas, but that meant Allen could continue helping Reimer on a morning schedule in Limon before heading over to run the Hugo library in the afternoon. Now, Reimer is retiring and passing the reins in Limon to Katie Zipperer, who has been directing the library’s bookmobile, another crucial tool for serving the 2,500 square miles of Lincoln County.

“We try to do everything we can together,” says Allen, who’s in her third year directing the Hugo library. “So when we make flyers, when we do programs, it’s always the three of us working together. So it’s been great to share resources.”

When she attended CALCON, the annual gathering of library staffers from all over the state, Allen saw the world opening up. She knew she wanted even her tiny facility to be about much more than books, and suddenly she learned that bigger (and better funded) libraries were doing all sorts of things to serve their populations.

“It just opened my eyes,” she says. “When I saw what other, bigger city libraries were doing, I thought, ‘We can do that.’ I was like a blank sheet when I got here.”

While Hugo’s size and budget might be limiting, Allen’s imagination was not. She noticed the array of “tool kits” that other libraries offered — materials for crafts, sewing machines, yoga, even memory resources for Alzheimer’s patients. She went to her board and told them that Hugo wasn’t keeping up. The library could do more.

So she started small, packaging various school materials in backpacks that students could check out. After those started gaining popularity, Allen moved to providing copying services and printing services that could produce brochures, flyers and posters. Word started filtering through town that the library could offer some extras like binding and laminating, printing and faxing — Allen even started providing a notary service.

With the Lincoln County Courthouse nearby, services like those proved particularly popular.

“We’re trying to do small things,” Allen says. “We don’t have tons of room but we can add on services to make things easier for people.”

When it comes to the future, Davies figures that Colorado is “just scratching the surface” in terms of creative ways that libraries can serve their patrons.  

“Ten years ago, we didn’t have a library of things where you can check out tools and you can check out cake pans, and you can check out VR headsets or GoPro cameras,” Davies says. “Whether you’re checking out gardening tools because you live in an apartment, but you have a gardening box, you don’t need to own these things. But how cool is it that you can check it out from the library?”

As gardens around Colorado begin to overflow with tomatoes, growers and cocktail enthusiasts may find themselves crossing paths at a unique version of that particular morning drink, whether the hair of the dog or a jump-start to the day, the Bloody Mary.

In a state bursting with home gardens, farmers markets, fresh produce and a DIY spirit, it seems inevitable that the drink would move beyond syrupy, heavily processed tomato juice out of a can. A couple of Colorado establishments offer their own versions of the drink and they stepped up with tips and tricks for the home bartender to try their hand.

Visitors to the juice bar at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs near Buena Vista have come across the freshly juiced Bloody Mary this summer, recently returned to the menu after some years of absence. The Mt. Princeton version of the cocktail relies on extremely ripe local hothouse tomatoes — grown on a neighboring property that makes use of the same geothermal activity that powers the springs — juiced along with a small handful of additional vegetables, according to Tom Warren, general manager at the hot springs.

For each 16-ounce drink, he said they juice five to six tomatoes along with half a lemon, a touch of fresh garlic and three local carrots, the last of which vastly improves the texture of the juice.

“With the tomatoes only it’s very thin, but when you squeeze the carrots it’s a thicker juice,” he said. “I think in the mouth it feels better than just the really really liquidy tomato juice.”

Warren rounds out the flavor profile with a touch of Japanese oyster sauce, which takes the place of traditional Worcestershire sauce in adding a touch of savoriness to the whole package, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and the customer’s choice of vodka. They experimented with oyster and Worcestershire, and Warren said the Worcestershire was too strong for the milder, freshly-juiced version of the cocktail. 

“We thought with the oyster sauce, it tasted very, very good. I did taste a sample with the Worcestershire sauce, it was not bad, but it almost overwhelmed the taste of the tomato,” he said. It’s overall a relatively low-sodium approach, though they rim the glass with Tajin, a blend of chile, lime and salt.

When it comes to garnishes, Mt. Princeton sticks with its minimal approach, offering bacon as an add-on. There once was an option to add three chilled shrimp, but that became “just a nightmare to prep” because of its popularity, Warren said.

For the home enthusiast, he recommends finding high-juice tomatoes, such as the fresh local ones used at the resort. “This is a very low-structured, soft tomato that’s full of liquid content,” he said. Some varieties and underripe tomatoes, liked the ones in the big box grocery stores that are “as hard as an apple,” will have too much flesh and yield less juice. “You would juice 20 for a (cocktail).”

Warren’s biggest recommendations for making a home-juiced Bloody Mary were to buy a good juicer and be prepared to spend some time making and perfecting the cocktail. It’s a “very simple, very wholesome” drink that relies on a few quality ingredients. “The real joy to it is that none of it is from a can or a bag.”

“The best Bloody Mary I’d ever had”

In Colorado Springs, Mother Muff’s owner Susan Hirt says her menu of Marys was informed by an older, more complex version of the Mt. Princeton cocktail that she enjoyed almost 20 years ago. Inspired by “the best Bloody Mary I’d ever had,” she experimented with different vegetables and different proportions to put one on the menu years later when opening Muff’s.

Because Mother Muff’s can serve hundreds of Bloody Marys in a day, the restaurant relies on a high-quality commercial tomato juice for its base, and blends it with a “concentrate” that consists of other juices and ingredients. The concentrate is made by juicing carrots, celery, cucumber, green and red bell peppers, beets (for color), jalapeño and a secret seventh ingredient in big batches using heavy-duty Breville juicers. They pass the initial pulp through a second time to ensure that they’re getting as much juice as possible for their effort and then freeze the concentrate

“At first we juiced every couple of days, because it only stays fresh for three or four days,” Hirt said. “I wanted to keep it as fresh as possible, and as veggie as possible. We came up with making it in big batches and freezing it.”

Vegetables get cleaned and chopped for ease of processing, but none are peeled. Once everything is processed, the vegetable juice is dosed with Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces and is ready to be added to the tomato juice.

For the home mixologist, Hirt recommended the approach she took to develop the Mother Muff’s recipe: juicing a few cups of a variety of vegetables, then playing with the proportions. She had a cucumber-heavy version that she liked, but it was less popular with tasters, so she dialed down the cucumber and turned up the peppers, carrots and other ingredients. “The beet helps to give it that juicy, earthy flavor, but it’s also for color,” she said. Without it, Muff’s mix is more brown than red.

Removing the seeds from the jalapeños or other peppers can impact the flavor profile and the level of heat, and she suggested substituting poblanos for the home mixologist who prefers it mild. She’s used Anaheim peppers in a pinch, as well.

“Don’t be afraid to try different things if it’s for yourself, for a party,” she advised. “It really is endless, the things you can juice. I think apple might be a really great minor ingredient if you’re looking for something different.”

Muff’s offers a variety of additional customizations that customers can explore or the home bartender can take inspiration from. There are choices that stray from vodka or house-infused poblano vodka — with offerings that include gin, rum, whiskey and tequila — and garnishes that range from the typical olive and celery stalk to bolder choices such as a pickle spear, bacon, blue cheese-stuffed olives and pepperoncini. 

Other tweaks, often based on regional interpretations, include Clamato instead of tomato juice, or augmenting the drink with olive juice, pickle juice, sriracha, wasabi, porter-style beer, and even beef broth. 

“There are different kinds of Bloody Marys depending on where you are in the United States,” Hirt said. “Where I grew in in Illinois, they put beef broth into ‘em, which I think is kinda gross, but it’s on there. Years and years and years ago, I stole a recipe from a bartender at The Keg Lounge in Manitou — who is now a regular, by the way, which I love — he put a little bit of porter beer in his Bloody Mary. It was something really unique that’d I’d never tried. It was really good, so it’s on there.”

So whether or not it includes clams or beef, Mother Muff’s illustrates the diversity of the drink. There are countless roads that the tender of a Bloody Mary bar can explore to make the drink their own, and the next great iteration might just come from a basket of fresh farmers market ingredients.

A basic tomato juice recipe

3 pounds very ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
1¼ cup chopped celery, including leaves
⅓ cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of black pepper
A couple of shakes of Tabasco sauce (6-8 drops, to taste)

This recipe can be made using the cooked method, recommended by simplyrecipes.com, or using one of these no-cook methods (including putting the ingredients through a countertop juicer) recommended by alphafoodie.com.

We tested the recipe using the blender method using extremely ripe field tomatoes and substituting two carrots for the sugar.

Tamara Chuang

Business/Technology Reporter

Quick links: What happens to complaints | July unemployment rate | Take the poll | Denver inflation | Horizon Organic adds B Corp | 100 Comcast RISE winners

Before Rohit Chopra stepped foot into the city of Westminster, the director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said he did some research about local businesses.

He noticed that in the city, much like other cities across America, there were a lot of banks, grocery stores, pharmacies and other businesses linked to large corporate chains.

“Even here in Westminster,” Chopra said Thursday during an event hosted by the city, “it’s more and more banks that aren’t locally owned. And so the net result is that sometimes you go into a branch and there’s really no one who can actually help talk you through anything. You’re siphoned over to a 1-800 number or the person tells you to go online. And what happens is that everything is becoming a little bit more less-human.”

Chopra is trying to humanize our daily lives again by reducing the corporate callousness that can emerge with modern technology, like chatbots. As companies have grown larger through mergers and acquisitions, the effort to cut costs and increase profits has taken a toll on consumers and customer service. He’s especially interested in how banks and financial companies are treating people. As an independent agency inside the Federal Reserve, CFPB was a response to financial fraud that led to the Great Recession. Essentially, it enforces federal consumer protection law and keeps an eye out for financial mayhem that could hurt consumers.

During his stop in Colorado, Chopra talked a lot about junk fees and trying to rid the world of systems that might trick consumers into agreeing to them. He was joined by U.S. Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Yadira Caraveo and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who are in the same pursuit.

Chopra’s experience of contesting an issue with an airline ticket led him down an “endless loop” first with a chatbot and then through the airline’s phone system that transferred him from person to person.

“I think they want you to hang up,” he said to the audience. “They don’t want you to contest the fee or contest the problem. And I just think this is fundamentally wrong. There’s nothing more dehumanizing than being charged fees for fake or worthless services.”

The agency does get pushback. An effort to ban credit card late fees over $8 is now on hold after the U.S. banking industry opposed it. Prohibiting firms from charging new “convenience fees” to consumers paying off loans online or by phone, doesn’t mean companies abide by the law, causing CFPB to file an Amicus brief in support in such legal cases. Companies also don’t like that consumer complaints are published online and unvetted.

Got a problem? CFPB wants to know

But when consumers feel helpless, sometimes they don’t speak up. And now, there’s a federal agency that, he said, listens. On the online complaint page, CFPB says it sends companies about 25,000 complaints about financial products each week.

“When we get complaints at ConsumerFinance.gov, it doesn’t go into a black hole. We order the bank to reply to you and then we look into it,” Chopra said. “We also prioritize issues that we think could become a problem later. For example, we mentioned voice cloning, generative AI-related scams. … We’ll get six or seven complaints that sound exactly the same. And it turns out that 60,000 or 70,000 people have that problem.”

His other consumer tip? “If you’re in a dispute with a bank or a company, one of the things that often will get their attention is if you say to them or write to them, if you don’t solve this, I’m filing a complaint with the state AG or the CFPB,” he added. “Trust me, they will respond.”

In Colorado, Weiser said consumers can report scams, shady practices and other complaints at StopFraudColorado.gov. His team of lawyers and investigators don’t turn every complaint into a full-on court case but they look for trends. And sometimes, they’ll just send a letter to the accused company.

“We tend to look at either particularly egregious situations or patterns and sometimes we’re able to ask a few questions,” Weiser said. “And that actually does the trick.”

Resources:

➔ File a complaint about a financial product. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau takes complaints online or by phone on any consumer-financial problem, including credit cards, debt collection, mortgages, loans and credit reports. The federal agency says that each week, it sends 25,000 complaints to companies for a response and most companies respond within 15 days. >> consumerfinance.gov/complaint or 855-411-2372

➔ File a complaint with Colorado AG. The state’s highest-ranked law enforcement officer is the AG and he works with local and federal agencies to investigate violations of consumer protection laws, antitrust and other legal issues. >> coag.gov/file-complaint (also in Spanish)

➔ More places to get problems resolved. Another official resource is via USA.Gov, which is part of the U.S. General Services Administration. This page has links to where consumers can complain about online purchases, company products or services, text scams and robocalls, car-related issues and more. >> usa.gov/consumer-complaints

July unemployment rate up a bit to 3.9%

In July, Colorado’s unemployment rate reached its highest level since January 2022. At 3.9%, it was up one-tenth of a percentage point from June. But even though this means more Coloradans were unemployed last month (up 1,844 to 126,270 who were looking for a job), the state’s labor force grew, too.

According to preliminary data, the state’s labor force is the largest it’s ever been, with 3,242,918 employed or looking for work. The changes in July, though, are pretty slight and are in line or better than how the nation is doing, said Tim Wonhof, an economist at the state Department of Labor and Employment

“Our population in Colorado has been growing consistently over time and our labor force has been growing consistently,” Wonhof said. “We, on the whole, are still at very low unemployment rates. Do we have a high number of discouraged workers? We have 126,000 people who are out of work and about a fifth of those, I believe, would fall into that category. But do we have more than usual now? I wouldn’t say we do.”

Wonhof pointed to a state labor department chart (below) that shows Coloradans between the working ages of 25 to 54 years old are part of the workforce more so than they’ve ever been in the past two decades.

The state also continues to add more jobs each month, adding 4,800 in July, he said. Nearly half were government jobs. For private industries, manufacturing lost 1,000 jobs, while trade, transportation and utility industries gained 4,100.

“Normally, our four-month average in Colorado would be a gain of 3,300 jobs. Well, we gained 4,800 (in July) so we’re ahead. At the national level, the four-month average is 154,000 and this month, they’re 114,000, so they’re a little bit down. But last month, it was the other way around,” Wonhof said. “I don’t read too much into the monthly numbers.”

Compared with the rest of the nation, Colorado was in the bottom half for unemployment rates, and ranked 31st. The U.S. unemployment rate for July was 4.3%.

>> See the data: Colorado’s July jobs report

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Updates on big Colorado economy news

We reported on these stories earlier this week but there have been some updates. Keep reading.

➔ Denver-area inflation rate down to 1.9% in July. Prices are still rising, but inflation fell to its lowest 12-month increase in three years in Denver. That drop to a 1.9% inflation rate surprised a few local economists, especially since the U.S. rate is still at 2.9%, which was also the lowest in three years. So what’s causing the decline in Denver’s Consumer Price Index?

Prices here have fallen for some items, like gas, apparel and new and used cars. Grocery prices didn’t change at all. But other items continued to increase, including dining out, up 5.7%. Shelter was up 2.1%, and that’s a huge chunk of a consumer’s budget. Keep in mind, the official rate considers just the one-year change, not how much groceries cost today compared to five years ago. But yes, prices are much higher than five years ago.

Denver’s rate was also the lowest nationwide. But the Denver data appeared to be missing some key data points, like the change to costs of electricity and natural gas. I reached out to the Bureau of Labor Statistics to ask why and, essentially, they said they didn’t get enough responses. When there’s not enough, they don’t release the data, as in the case of the Denver energy index.

“The missing items will still impact the aggregate indexes they belong to,” said Justin Copple, a BLS spokesman. “The prices that were successfully collected are used to calculate an unpublishable CPI which is used to aggregate up to the larger expenditure categories all the way through to all items less food and energy and all items.”

Other items, like automobile insurance, have been removed entirely from Denver’s data. Auto insurance in Denver hasn’t been tracked since 2021. BLS officials said that, too, could be linked to low responses. In those cases, Denver’s auto insurance calculation would default to the national urban CPI, which was 18.6% higher in July.

>> Earlier: Denver inflation slowed faster than the national rate to 1.9%. Does it feel like it?

➔ New business filings dropped 21.7%. During her quarterly update on how many businesses there are in Colorado, Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the rate of new filings dropped 21.7% in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier. Griswold attributed the decline to the end of a big discount around June 2023 that dropped filing fees to $1.

But there were other concerns about the data, including the growing number of delinquent filers. As reported earlier, delinquencies grew 91,000 in the quarter and now number more than 934,000. The Secretary of State’s Office said that the list includes years of businesses that never officially dissolved and it also includes owners who may be just a few weeks late in renewing their paperwork. I wondered how late? Here’s additional information, which I’ll track in future new business updates.

Of those 934,437 delinquent filings in the second quarter, here’s how late they were as of Aug. 14, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

• Less than 30 days: 14,034
• 30 to 59 days: 10,717
• 60 to 89 days: 14,591
• 90 days or more: 903,971

>> Earlier: Number of new Colorado businesses drops 21.7% nearly a year after filing-fee discount ends

Sun economy stories you may have missed

➔ Colorado food banks may soon run out of the federal funds they use to buy local produce. Colorado received close to $10 million in pandemic-era funding to help food banks buy local produce, but the money is running low with no replacement in sight >> Read story

➔ Colorado governor calls special session on property taxes to avoid ballot measure fight in November. The special session will allow lawmakers to advance a deal under which the conservative supporters of Initiatives 50 and 108 will pull their measures from the ballot >> Read story

➔ With rising rents, theater companies are renting a Denver office space to rehearse. The new Three Leaches Theatre on Colfax will house two theater companies and a gallery, and hopes to lessen the burden on the few affordable rehearsal spaces left in Denver >> Read story

➔ The economics of eating out have some of Denver’s top chefs dismayed, discouraged and looking elsewhere. Some of the city’s award-winning chefs get specific about their love/hate relationship of being part of Colorado’s largest dining scene >> Read story

➔ Geothermal developers to get $1M from Icelandic investors, energy office to tap resource deep under Chaffee County. Investors will match a $500,000 grant from the Colorado Energy Office, which Mt. Princeton Geothermal will put toward testing its well site near Buena Vista >> Read story

Other working bits

➔ Horizon Organic becomes a B Corp (again). The Broomfield dairy brand has provided organic milk since 1991. But only last month did it receive B Corp Certification, a designation that the for-profit company has met stringent tests and is deemed beneficial to all stakeholders, which includes employees, suppliers and the community. That’s the same with sister company Wallaby, which makes Greek yogurt. So, why only now? It had to reapply after its former parent, Danone sold the brands to Platinum Equity in April. Danone is one of the world’s largest B Corps.

“Following the acquisition,” said Tyler Holm, CEO of the two brands, in an email, “it was important to pursue independent B Corp certification to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to redefining success in business as a force for good. As a result, all Horizon Organic and Wallaby products will continue to carry the B Corp seal.”

Certified by the B Lab organization, companies must pass tests that score what their value and benefits are as a business, to the environment and the community. >> Horizon’s B Corp score

➔ Cost of health insurance is top challenge for small businesses. This shouldn’t be a surprise for members of the National Federation of Independent Business, which advocates for small business owners. Health insurance has been the top issue since 1986, according to the organization, which published its 2024 report called “Small Business Programs & Priorities.” Top Colorado-specific issues weren’t available, said state director Tony Gagliardi but “the threat of a massive federal tax hike in 2025 exacerbates the uncertainty Main Street Coloradans are feeling,” he said in a news release. He’s pushing for Congress to make the 20% Small Business Deduction permanent. >> Read report

➔ Comcast awards 100 southern Colorado companies a 30-second commercial and $5,000. The state’s dominant cable TV provider unveiled winners of its RISE awards, which isn’t an acronym but a program that launched in 2020 to support minority-owned small businesses impacted by the pandemic. The 100 winners in Colorado are all in the southern half of the state and include RAD Hostel in Colorado Springs, The Walter Brewing Company in Pueblo and Armadillo Ranch in Manitou Springs.

Comcast focused on southern Colorado because of the growth in small businesses which “account for over 90% of total employment,” said Wendy Artman, a Comcast spokesperson. “This is an area where this program can make a big difference.”

Recipients receive $5,000, a tech makeover and a fully produced TV commercial (from Comcast’s advertising sales division Effectv) that will air on local cable channels. >> The winners

Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co/heyww

Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. Remember to check out The Sun’s daily coverage online. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara

Miss a column? Catch up:

• Market recovers but here’s why Colorado job growth is slowing
• As food-insecurity funds end, Colorado farmers focus on food hub
• Colorado top-paying and lowest-paying jobs
• Repurposing old stuff in Colorado can be profitable
• Despite setbacks, a Durango builder is framing affordable houses in under a month
• What consumers and businesses need to know about Colorado’s “Do not sell my data” law
• Colorado employers may finally have found enough workers
• How a Denver company is fighting the problem of underemployment

What’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.

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A newlywed couple and the bride’s mother were killed in a crash after a semitruck overturned on Interstate 70 west of Denver, spilling its cargo of large plastic tubes, just days after the wedding, family members said.

Ruben Rodriguez, 33; Juliana Rodriguez Plata, 37, and her mother, Luz Melba Martinez, who had traveled from Colombia for the Aug. 10 wedding, were killed in the crash Thursday morning, Ruben Rodriguez’s sister-in-law, Janell Rodriguez, told KMGH-TV.

The bride’s father, Carlos Joaquin Plata, and the couple’s 1-year-old son Danny were injured, Janell Rodriguez also said.

Their westbound car was hit by one of the tubes, which weigh about 500 pounds each, after an eastbound truck flipped over, spilling nearly 100 plastic tubes on both sides of the highway, according to police. All three people taken to the hospital, including the truck driver, were later released, police said Friday.

The family was on the way to the mountains for a honeymoon vacation when the crash happened, Janell Rodriguez said.

The family is still reeling.

“And then the baby without both of his parents, you know? It’s hard. It’s hard for the family. So we’re just gathered here right now just trying to be strong together,” Janell Rodriguez said.

Police said they were working with prosecutors on possible charges being filed in connection with the series of crashes triggered by the truck overturning.

At least six other vehicles besides the truck were involved, they said. However, with a debris field spanning the length of more than two football fields, police cautioned the investigation would likely take weeks, rather than days.

“Our hearts go out to the families that have been impacted by the tragic loss of life yesterday,” police said in a statement posted on social media.

The Colorado GOP this week sent out a transphobic email attacking the Democratic opponent of state Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, who is running for reelection in the toss-up Senate District 6 — a race that could have big implications on the trajectory of policy at the Capitol.

The email Thursday repeatedly used male pronouns to refer to Vivian Smotherman, a transgender Durango farmer and Navy veteran. It also included a screenshot of a social media post from the far-right “Libs of TikTok” account saying Smotherman is “a man pretending to be a woman” and that “in Peru he would be considered mentally ill.”

“Given Senator Simpson’s commitment to improving prosperity in rural areas and his wide-ranging support across SD-6, there is not one good reason to vote for Smotherman,” the Colorado GOP email said. “However, we have seen several Colorado elections in which gender identity garners votes from people wanting to be progressive and fearing they’ll be labeled as ‘anti-trans’ for not supporting the media’s DEI candidate.”

The party said Democratic state Reps. Stephanie Vigil and Brianna Titone — referring to Titone by her dead name — benefited from diversity, equity and inclusion pushes to win their elections. Vigil identifies as gender fluid while Titone is the first transgender person elected to the legislature in Colorado.

Smotherman called the email a fear-mongering distraction.

Republican campaigns have been privately complaining about the emails the Colorado GOP has sent out recently in support of the party’s candidates running in toss-up districts. The missives have included offensive remarks and unsubstantiated allegations about their Democratic opponents.

The emails come as Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams has come under fire for not doing enough to support Republican campaigns across the state. But now some are wishing the party would just stay away altogether.

“I already called Vivian to let her know I did not have advance knowledge of this and the attacks do not align with my value system,” Simpson told The Colorado Sun, adding that he plans to voice his frustration to the party, too. 

He pointed out that he has sponsored a bill with Titone.

“I’ve been a Republican my entire life and largely a part of the calculus to run for reelection was to demonstrate you can be a conservative Republican under the gold dome and still be effective,” he said. “If you treat people with dignity and respect you can still build some small wins.”

Simpson called the state party’s email a “step backward” in his cause.

Williams or Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Sun on Friday. Neither did Darcy Schoening, the director of special initiatives at the Colorado GOP, who sent out the email.  

In Senate District 6, the Colorado GOP’s decision to wade into the contest could be particularly damaging. 

A nonpartisan analysis of election results in the district between 2016 and 2020, completed as part of the state’s redistricting process, estimated it leans 1 percentage point in Democrats’ favor. But the 2022 election results tell another story. 

Gov. Jared Polis won the district by 11 points, while U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet won it by 8 points and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser won it by 5. Polis, Bennet and Weiser are Democrats.

Democrats hold a 23-12 majority in the Colorado Senate, one seat shy of a supermajority. That makes Simpson’s race critical.

Democrats will be defending two competitive Senate seats in November and trying to pick up three others. 

The state Senate districts with races this year will be up for grabs for the first time since their boundaries were redrawn in 2021 as part of the state’s once-a-decade redistricting process. When Simpson was first elected in 2020, his constituency was more conservative and his district included counties in southeastern Colorado. Now, the district has shifted westward and the electorate is more favorable to Democrats.

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Senate District 6 includes all or parts of Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Dolores, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan and San Miguel Counties. Major cities and towns in the district include Durango, Pagosa Springs, Cortez, Telluride and Alamosa.

Still, Simpson is known as a low-key moderate Republican who works across the aisle. He’s won the endorsement, for instance, of Democrat John Salazar, a former congressman who lives in District 6. His reputation means he is expected to have a solid chance of winning reelection. 

The Colorado GOP’s unwelcome approach to the district could jeopardize that. At the very least, the email is giving Democrats an easy line of attack.

“Dave Williams should be ashamed of himself,” Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Shad Murib said in a written statement. “Everyone from Cleave Simpson to Jeff Hurd to Gabe Evans has a responsibility to condemn this hatred and division.”

Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, and Evans, a state representative from Fort Lupton, are Republicans running in competitive congressional districts this year.

Smotherman, in an interview with The Sun, said Simpson offered “a very sincere and genuine apology” when they talked. She said the Colorado GOP’s claims that she is focusing her campaign on her identity are false. 

“It’s something we’re not surprised at,” she said of the email. “We were hoping we could avoid it and stick to the issues.”

Smotherman said she and Simpson have agreed to keep their campaigns focused on the debate over how to improve the lives of people in Senate District 6.

Election Day is Nov. 5. Voters will begin receiving ballots in October.

A man who was convicted of pointing a gun at Burger King drive-thru worker who wouldn’t accept drugs for payment and later shooting at other people elsewhere the same night has been sentenced to 143 years in prison.

Prosecutors who announced the sentence Thursday said the drive-thru incident was the beginning of a series of crimes Eugene Robertson carried out in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Oct. 17, 2022. No one was wounded.

In April, a jury found Robertson guilty of 17 crimes, including eight counts of attempted murder. The sentences for many of the crimes were stacked on top of each other, leading to a long sentence. Robertson had faced a maximum sentence of more than 400 years when he was sentenced Aug. 9.

“I hope this century-long prison sentence serves as a warning that my prosecutors and I will not tolerate violent crime in our community,” 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said in a statement.

After Robertson pointed the gun at the drive-thru worker, prosecutors said he walked into a convenience store across the street and pointed a gun at the head of a clerk. When Robertson saw there was a surveillance video camera system there, he shot at the screen and left, then shot toward two people outside in the parking lot, Kellner’s office said.

The Sentinel Colorado in Aurora previously reported that a witness at the convenience store store told police there seemed to be “something off” about Robertson and that he was “talking about God” and carrying a Bible with a purple cover.

Later that night, a woman who was friends with Robertson called 911 to report that he had fired shots after she refused to open the door of her apartment, where she was with several people, prosecutors said.

Police spotted Robertson at the woman’s apartment complex. He hid behind some bushes before being arrested, prosecutors said.

LOVELAND — A Colorado man has been charged with strangulation and child abuse after allegedly grabbing a teen by the neck and throwing him on the floor of an In-N-Out Burger as the teen was apologizing for splashing water on a woman.

The 55-year-old Loveland man surrendered to police on Tuesday, the day a warrant was issued for his arrest, police said. His bail was set at $75,000 and his next court appearance is Aug. 23, court records said.

He has not yet entered a plea.

Officers were called to the restaurant in Loveland at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 4. A 15-year-old boy told officers he and two friends were splashing water on one another when a woman was accidentally splashed.

The teen approached her table to apologize when the man assaulted him, police said.

The man and woman had left the restaurant by the time officers arrived.

Officers reviewed videos of the incident and witnesses identified the suspect, police said.

AURORA — On Wednesday evenings at the edge of a wide parking lot in Aurora, there is a forest green pop-up tent with five large, scraped-up coolers stacked nearby. The coolers hold 27 bags of fresh produce, harvested that morning at Switch Gears Farm in Longmont. 

The arugula gets picked first, Vanita Patel, co-founder and co-owner of Switch Gears explained. The farmers chop the spicy leaves down early in the morning while the air is still cool, soak them in cold water for an hour then spin them dry, rinse again and bag it all up. The potatoes and shallots are pulled straight out of the ground and thrown into the bags — the dirt on their skin helps them keep fresh longer. There are heirloom tomatoes and two shades of beets. There are also a couple of plump, round Baingan eggplants that Patel is especially proud of. It took her four years to find the seeds, she said.

“We take our varietals very seriously,” she told a group of stakeholders and policymakers who were circled up next to the tent Wednesday, including state Sen. Rhonda Fields and a district leader from U.S. Rep. Jason Crow’s office.

The bags of produce were to be handed out during a two-hour window to people enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children federal food assistance program. That produce is paid for by Nourish Colorado, a food equity and advocacy group, using funds from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, known as the LFPA. 

These funds have bolstered local agriculture and supported low-cost food distribution for the past three years, but they’re about to run out with no replacement in sight. And that’s why the government workers were gathered in the Aurora parking lot, to hear from Nourish and the farmers about what comes next. 

What is the LFPA?

The LFPA is a pandemic-era relief program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nationally, the program has issued more than $900 million to state governments, tribes and territories for food banks, pantries and distribution sites to buy produce from local farmers.

Colorado was one of the first states to receive funding, and over the past three years has received and distributed close to $10 million in LFPA funds. The state has passed the money on to 35 grantees in the food supply chain.

Two things set the LFPA apart from other food security programs. First, its direct support of local agriculture. Grantees are required to purchase food from producers within 400 miles of the distribution site. 

Second, the funds are intended to support “socially disadvantaged producers,” which, according to the USDA, includes veterans, women, people of color and people with disabilities, among other groups.

According to the Colorado Department of Human Services, of the 220 producers who sold to LFPA grantees, 147 of them, or 67%, are considered “socially disadvantaged.”

The middle section

That 67% includes Patel, the Switch Gears farmer. Or, in her words, “I check a lot of the boxes, in terms of diversity.” 

One thing that Patel thinks needs to be reconciled between the LFPA grantees, like food banks, and the small, “socially disadvantaged” farmers is that these farms don’t always have the resources to provide cheap food to a large community in need.

“I can’t sell these boxes for $10 or $15. There is already so little profit being made,” she said. “But when food banks get these grants, there’s this comparison to big farms. They can give much more produce, and it’s like, ‘yes, because they’ve been in Colorado for 100 years, and they own their land, and they own their water rights.’”

The ability to scale doesn’t just require more land, it also requires equipment and infrastructure. Things like cold storage, packaging facilities and delivery vans.

“I don’t need my own delivery van,” Patel clarified. She thinks there’s a way for organizations and small farmers to collaborate when it comes to these improvements.

“Up in Boulder County, we’ll literally text each other, ‘storm’s coming your way,’ because we can see each others’ properties,” she said. “If I had access to a delivery van, or cold storage I could share it with other farmers. That would be so much better.”

This sentiment was echoed by Maggie Kinneberg, a researcher for the Donnell-Kay Foundation, a nonprofit that supports funding for food systems work. An area that is overlooked — in food systems in general, not limited to LFPA recipients — is what she calls the “middle” segment of a farm-to-fork journey.

“I think there’s a friction point not just for new farms, but also for those that are established and looking to scale, that they don’t have access to infrastructure,”  Kinneberg said. “And when I say infrastructure, I mean buildings and equipment, but I also mean some of the technical systems like inventory management, accounting, HR, some of those basic things that you need to run a functioning business.”

Two different models

Although the reporting process is standardized by the USDA — that is, reporting who and what the funds are spent on — pretty much everything else is up to the states and their grantees.

Colorado decided to use an open application system, inviting food producers and distributors to apply for the nearly $10 million to spend directly on food during three rounds of funding.

Nourish Colorado worked with their partner distributors, places like the East Denver Food Hub, to apply for separate grants, stretching the money further and using the established sites.

Another recipient, Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado, created an entirely new system to distribute nearly $1.8 million in LFPA funds.

Now in its 50th year, Care and Share has the traditional food bank model down pat. They buy in bulk from larger farms, like Yoder Family Farms in Trinidad, truck the food to one of three distribution sites, sort it, then ship it out to 293 food bank partners.

But with the LFPA’s emphasis on small, socially disadvantaged farms, Care and Share needed a way to buy food in smaller quantities from the often isolated farms around southern Colorado.

So they took the distribution centers out of the equation. Instead, they gave local food bank partners a budget to spend at the selected farms. 

For example, if Care and Share had $50,000 in LFPA funds for “Farm A” and there are five local food bank partners in that area, then each food bank will have $10,000 to spend on food at that specific farm, Nate Springer, president and CEO of Care and Share, explained. 

Not only does this cut down on infrastructure and transportation needs, but it also gives the food banks autonomy to decide which foods are culturally relevant to their communities.

“We work from Monument to New Mexico, and from Utah to Kansas. There is a lot of diversity in that area,” Springer said. “So when we find these farmers, I don’t want it to be up to Care and Share to figure out what our partners (the food banks) need. They know better than we do.”

What happens next

When and whether the LFPA funds continue depends on how the election shakes out in November, and what the House and Senate Agriculture committees look like (Colorado Rep. Yadira Caraveo serves on the House committee, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet serves on the Senate committee), and who the Secretary of Agriculture is in January, said Wendy Moschetti, executive director of Nourish Colorado. “There’s lots of different depends in there,” she said. 

The biggest “depend” of all is whether Congress is able to pass the updated farm bill, a bill that sets agriculture and food policy for five-year periods, and is currently in limbo at the Capitol. 

Meanwhile, grant recipients in Colorado have spent almost 70% of the LFPA funds, and with one more major harvest season in the fall, the state suspects the money will be gone by the end of the year. 

“Long story short is we need continuation of the current LFPA right now, that will last us until we have a permanent program,” Moschetti said. That’s why she invited the political group to hang out in an Aurora parking lot, watching mothers grab bags full of fresh greens and purple potatoes and tiny tomatoes, while their kids snacked on free peaches that a local farmer dropped off.

Springer, of Care and Share, is also eyeing the end of the funding, and has raised about $100,000 in order to continue Care and Share’s new partnerships. He would not name specific foundations that made donations.

Moschetti said that Nourish Colorado’s backup plan is similar to Springer’s: Look to philanthropy.

“I don’t think it’s philanthropy’s job to deal with things the federal government and the state government should be doing, but when there are gaps in government funding, that is exactly when philanthropy needs to step in,” Moschetti said. “And we’re facing a really big cliff right now.”