Residents of Colorado Springs' Hillside neighborhood celebrated the ground breaking for a new community food center over the weekend.
The food center, Hillside Hub, is meant to improve food resources for residents in southeastern Colorado Springs. Food to Power, formerly known as Colorado Springs Food Rescue, a local nonprofit that helps create better food options for the community, created the idea for the food center.
Kabwasa, the nonprofits executive director said the project has been "years in the making" and she feels overjoyed now that the day has finally come.
In 2016 the organization began surveying residents and holding community sessions to find out what the community needed.
"Through years of research and community engagement, neighbors made it clear that there is a serious need for fresh food access and programming in this part of town,” Kabwasa said in a news release. “It has taken a lot of work by a lot of people to get to this milestone."
The nonprofit's food center is aimed to provide a collaborative space where neighbors can cook, grow, and learn about food access. The community food center will also serve as a place to provide employment.
Kabwasa said they organization will try to meet their goals by creating an educational community farm, a community events and workshop space, administrative offices, a space to access low-cost and no-cost groceries, an indigenous healing garden and a compost processing and drop-off site.
"I think the impact of being able to have more fresh food resources accessible within your neighborhood has overtime the potential to affect health outcomes, as well as, you know, contribute to community wealth building, and just space to build community," Kabwasa said.
Hillside Hub will focus on the communities of southeastern Colorado Springs but the facility is open to the public, Kabwasa said.
The pandemic posed hiccups in the building's construction time table and cost, but Kabwasa said grant money and generous donors continue to make the project possible.
"We just are so grateful for community support," Kabwasa said. "We are, because you know construction costs have increased, we are still fundraising to close that gap."
Saturday's event kicked off the building's construction with a ground breaking ceremony that included live music, dancing, food trucks, free groceries and seedling giveaways for residents.
The building' construction is on track to finish by the start of 2022, Kabwasa said.
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