Toasting 18 Years of Dedicated Service

After 18 years of dedicated service to Food Bank of the Rockies, Barbara Arko, Vice President of
Development, has retired. Barbara came to FBR after a long career in Development for the Arts – her other love. She was responsible for overseeing all fundraising activities, board member recruitment and annual, capital and endowment campaigns. She also served as FBR’s interim CEO in 2002. Barbara wore many hats for the organization and did a remarkable job in each position she held.

Staff and supporters of Food Bank of the Rockies will be forever grateful for the compassion and commitment Barbara has demonstrated in helping those in need. We have grown from distributing just over 8 million pounds when Barbara joined the organization to over 25 million this past year. Barbara played a large role in the growth experienced by this organization.

In early January, peers, partners and family gathered together to send Barbara off in style at a retirement party honoring her dedication. The pinnacle of the evening occurred when Board Chair, Richard Treich, unveiled the new name of the Development wing of FBR’s office: The "Barbara Arko Development Center." Here's to you Barbara! You will be missed!

This plaque hangs inside the Development Offices at FBR.


Barbara's husband and daughters joined us in celebrating her retirement.

Dom & Jane = 6,887,880 Meals!

For the past 10 years, right before Thanksgiving, MIX 100’s Dom & Jane stay on the radio 24 hours over a two day period to raise money for Food Bank of the Rockies. Their amazing dedication to fighting hunger for our neighbors in need has turned this event into one of the largest fundraisers for FBR. Through the past 10 years, "The Dom & Jane Show" cast members, Dom Testa and Jane London, have raised enough money to provide 6,887,880 meals for
food-insecure individuals in our service area!

A group from Whiting Petroleum visits the studio to talk about their support of FBR.

Mayor Hickenlooper pops in to show his support!

Throughout the 2 days of Charity Marathon, Dom and Jane invite FBR donors to visit the studio and share their contributions to FBR with the listening audience. Stories of clients who utilize FBR’s service are aired throughout the programming and countless listeners call in to donate toward helping FBR continue the fight against hunger. The Marathon concludes with a Live Remote where members of the community can drop off donations with the Dom & Jane team.

We can’t imagine what we would do without the dedication of Dom and Jane and the entire Mix 100 team! Endless thanks for 10 years of partnership and millions and millions of meals provided!

Dom, Jane, Tizzy & Jeremy close out the marathon at the live remote.

2,000 Families & 5,000 Kids

This morning I witnessed a line of our neighbors that extended around a city block in East Denver. Last week, 2,000 families and more than 5,000 children signed up with Volunteers of America to receive a bag of food to get them through this holiday week. They lined up before 8:00am this morning to pick up the much needed food. VOA volunteers served coffee and hot chocolate outside as folks waited in the bitter cold. The line didn't end. And neither did the innocent faces of countless kids who were surprised to find "Santa" inside and thousands of presents waiting just for them. For many, these gifts are the first "new" item they've ever claimed as their own.

VOA has organized this enormously vital effort for over 12 years. FBR has been honored to be given the opportunity to provide the food, Safeway donates hams for each family and a generous group of Realtors donates gifts for the kids. Working together for those who don't have the resources to do so is a beautiful thing.

Rapids Bowl for Charity

When The Colorado Rapids moved into our Denver FBR neighborhood, we were excited about the possibility of partnering with them in the fight against hunger. We didn't realize just how involved they would be willing to become! As you saw in a recent post, the team participated in our Tyson Chicken Lift Up America event at Dick's Sporting Goods Park and then again more recently in the Rapids Bowl for Charity fundraiser.


On November 11th, the entire Rapids team and over 100 guests gathered at Splitz Bowling Center in Westminster for a night of food, drink, prizes, socializing and some serious bowling. FBR brought a couple of teams to join in the festivities and accepted a check for $1500 as a result of the fundraiser.










Rapids Goalkeeper, Bouna Coundoul, said, "It was a great evening filled with pizza, laughter and fun. It also felt good knowing that we were raising money for hungry families this holiday season."


Heartfelt THANKS to The Colorado Rapids Community Care Foundation, all the players and those who made the night possible.

It Takes a Village

Thanksgiving is less than a week away. Folks all over our city are uniting to provide food to those who can't afford a typical turkey & stuffing meal. Working at FBR provides a pretty cool opportunity to see firsthand the donations that are coming in.

Last week we welcomed a truck full of onions from Sakata Farms in Brighton into our warehouse. That 47,000 pound load of onions went a long way! This morning we watched as 4,600 pies and cakes from Village Inn were unloaded and stacked high. These mouth watering circles of goodness will be an added bonus to thousands of families who can't afford the basics, let alone extras like pie.

All the boxes in the background contain frozen pies from Village Inn!

It definitely takes a village to feed the hundreds of thousands of people served through our partner agencies. THANK YOU to the generous donors, volunteers and advocates of Food Bank of the Rockies. We couldn't fight hunger without you!

Friday Night with Will

Shaking hands with and accepting a check from Will Smith. Can't ask for much more on a random November Friday night. Will was in town this past weekend for the red carpet premier of his new movie "Seven Pounds." When we got the call that Will and Sony Pictures wanted to incorporate FBR into the evening by donating a check for turkeys as well as food from fans attending the premier, we didn't hesitate to gratefully accept.

FBR staff was on hand to get a sneak peak of Mr. Smith shaking hands with our own Kevin Seggelke and handing him a life sized check, which will purchase over 300 turkeys for our partner agencies. 981 pounds of donated food was loaded into our truck that night as well, making this one Friday night to remember.

Denver Broncos Champ Bailey and Brandon Marshall joined the festivities and gifted Will with his own Broncos jersey.

Special special thanks to Will, Sony Pictures and all those involved with making this Thanksgiving that much better for so many of our neighbors in need. Everyone...go see Seven Pounds on December 19th!

Our Annual Media Frenzy

What do you get when you mix local media personalities, shopping carts, a 3 minute shopping frenzy & fierce competitive drives? You get the 16th Annual Shop O Rama at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage. To kick-off the 2008 "Check Out Hunger" program, an easy way for people to donate to children’s programs through Food Bank of the Rockies' Nutrition Network. At local Natural Grocer locations, shoppers can add $1 or $5 coupons to their grocery bill November 1st through December 31st. Natural Grocers will match all customer donations up to $50,000. It's one of our favorite events and yesterday was proof why we look forward to this day each and every year!

The line up...CW2's Tom Green, Channel 4's Jim Benemann & Karen Leigh, FOX 31's Melissa Mollet & husband Jake, Denver Magazine's Katie Shapiro & Adria Marin and Natural Grocers owners Kemper & Heather Isely. Teams took off with their carts to load up with food as close to the total of $169.11 as possible (without going over!). Some teams carried calculators to keep track as they went and others threw in product and hoped for the best. You can guess which tactic brought about the winning total:)

Never before have we had totals like we did in yesterday's fierce shopping battle. Every team went over the total.....Channel 4 set a record for the highest total over the allotted amount! And yes, that includes the items Mr. Benemann is conveniently hiding behind his back in the photo below. Their spunk made up for their 5th place score!

Tom Green paired up with Heather Isely, but even the Vitamin Cottage expert wasn't enough to claim him as the 2008 winner. Note the spunk referred to above in the shot below.

The ladies from Denver Magazine couldn't have been closer to gaining bragging rights! They took 2nd place by a mere 15 cents. That's the closest runner up to date for this event.

Melissa stood by nervously awaiting the final results....

After a few dedicated years of determination, our friend Melissa Mollet brought home the title and shopping cart trophy for FOX 31. They were $2.29 over the total. She and Jake couldn't have been more proud. HUGE THANKS to Natural Grocers and all our media participants for another fantastic Shop O Rama! We'll look forward to next year's festivities!