Our 2024 state legislative wrap-up

June 5, 2024

As an organization committed to transparency and collaboration, the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger presents its 2024 state legislative session review. Join us in celebrating wins and reflecting on lessons learned as we all move towards a policy and advocacy landscape that’s fully accessible and working for the people of Colorado.

Our team, through the Blueprint’s State Policy Committee, entered the 2024 legislative session with many collective priorities. These included supporting food access programs for unhoused Coloradans; creating opportunities for collective land purchasing and pathways to community-led food sovereignty; sustaining funding for charitable food assistance partners; increasing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and related incentive programs; advancing food-as-medicine efforts; and many more.

We’re happy to report that several introduced bills did reflect our shared priorities – and we’ll continue to re-evaluate and refine these priorities as we prepare for next year!

Nutrition Programs & Food Access

The Blueprint envisions a Colorado where everyone who lives here has access to the food they choose, where they want it, and when they need it. A key part of our vision is ensuring federal and state-level nutrition programs are robustly funded, equitably administered, and continuously improved.

As a result of strategic discussions with our Food Access for the Unhoused Project Team, we advocated for the SNAP team at the Colorado Department of Human Services(CDHS) to receive a boost in resourcing through this year's state budget. We’re grateful that once-temporary SNAP staff positions were made permanent through the Long Bill. With these changes, CDHS can continue to improve services for Coloradans who rely upon SNAP benefits to purchase groceries.
The Blueprint, alongside Nourish Colorado, co-led advocacy efforts for HB24-1301: Noncurricular Time Programs, focused on time to eat in schools, since it was a priority for many parents, students, schools, and partners in our network. Disappointingly, the Time to Eat bill failed to progress through the necessary committees. We realize where our efforts fell short but also recognize how this work led to significant stakeholder conversations and information-gathering that will bolster our future endeavors. Stay tuned for an update on what’s next later this summer!
Here are some of the biggest lessons learned:
- Creating task force appointments is challenging and political. It was difficult to create a list of positions that we felt fully captured the necessary stakeholders while also appeasing the legislature.
- Fiscal notes (costs of the bill) – no matter how small we think they are – really slow down the movement of a bill through session. The broader anti-poverty community needs to come together and explore longer-term, sustainable strategies for funding under Colorado's constrained budget, if we all want to be successful and transformative in the future.
- The process of stakeholder engagement needs to start much earlier than the start of the session and be continuous. This includes not only connecting with key supporters but also potential opponents.

Our state’s SNAP Outreach Program continued to receive funding through the state budget, stewarded by Hunger Free Colorado. This means Colorado families and individuals will continue to be connected to food assistance benefits that help fuel their bodies, minds, and lives.

Feeding Colorado and Hunger Free Colorado successfully ensured that funding for food pantries and food banks is a part of state statute under the new Community Food Assistance Provider Grant Program.

Thanks to Nourish Colorado, Healthy Food Incentive programs, like Double Up Food Bucks, continue to receive funding and now benefits from being its own program in the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s budget.

Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) faced unexpected challenges with a funding shortfall announced early in the budget forecasting process by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). The Blueprint focused on providing timely updates on the Joint Budget Committee’s deliberations as well as provided an explainer about the complicated processes of school meal funding. As Hunger Free Colorado led conversations with legislators for a late bill, we supported our partners at Nourish Colorado in the protection and maintenance of the state's Local Food Program as a core aspect of HSMA. Our team will continue to keep our network updated as CDE takes the actions mandated in HB24-1390: School Food Programs.

Connecting Food & Health

In Fall 2023, we launched a new convening space, the Connecting Food & Health Project Team. It has filled a much-needed gap for food advocates and healthcare partners to collaborate and uplift the importance of our state investing in health through access to fresh, healthy, and culturally affirming foods.

Our partners at Project Angel Heart, Healthier Colorado, and Colorado Coalition for the Homeless led a strong bipartisan effort to pass HB24-1322: Medicaid Coverage Housing & Nutrition Services. This bill ensures that our state’s future investments in Medicaid will address housing and food access through studies and stakeholder engagement.

The Blueprint’s Connecting Food and Health Project Team will continue to be a space that you can count on to hear updates on these processes and other advocacy opportunities for Medicaid in Colorado.

Supporting Colorado Producers

Through the Blueprint’s Farm Equity Coalition, we partnered with the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) and other allies to pass a budget request securing funding for a dedicated position within CDA to focus on workforce development and support historically marginalized farmers and farm workers, such as those who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latine, LGBTQIA2+, and female.
We want to thank the coalition members who created the vision for these positions and reached out to Joint Budget Committee members. We also commend our partners at Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, CDA, GoFarm, Project Protect Food Systems, Nourish Colorado, and Feeding Colorado for helping with some important lobbying efforts. We learned that no matter how “secure” we feel legislation is, the ability to organize and lobby in a short period of time is paramount!
Our friends at Rocky Mountain Farmers Union were busy this session advocating for Colorado’s farmers and ranchers. We committed some of our lobbying efforts to support the creation of a rural community behavioral health liaison position within our state’s Behavioral Health Administration (which passed!) as well as supported a tax credit for transfers of agricultural assets (which did not advance).

Cross-Sector Collaboration

We recognize that hunger and inequitable access to nourishing foods do not occur in a vacuum. Systems that perpetuate poverty, injustice, and discrimination create and intensify the experience of hunger. This is why we’re committed to highlighting and supporting partners that advocate to address issues that intersect with our anti-hunger work each legislative session.

We want to lift up the work of Justice for Black Coloradans in the passage of SB24-053, which establishes the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Commission within the state’s legislative department. The commission will conduct a study on the historical and continuing impacts of slavery and systemic racism on Black Coloradans as well as provide recommendations.
The Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials successfully carried a continuation of local public health funding. This allows health departments to be responsive to the unique needs of the communities they serve.

The Colorado Center on Law and Policy and Colorado Coalition for the Homeless worked tirelessly to secure a late bill that would provide needed funding to the Colorado Necessary Documents Program. Though SB24-211 did not pass, there were lessons learned that will aid future initiatives.

As a continuation of HB23-1280, Colorado Legal Services and the Colorado Center on Law and Policy passed legislation that establishes the Colorado Access to Justice Commission to manage the Equal Justice Fund. It aims to provide financial assistance to local organizations that offer legal representation and advice to low-income individuals.

In a legislative session that saw multiple proposals for tax credits, Gary Community Ventures stewarded the new Family Affordability Tax Credit. It will bring financial relief to Colorado families who struggle to afford food, housing, utilities, childcare, and other essential needs.

We would like to thank our many partners – from community members to organizations across Colorado – for your leadership, subject matter expertise, and work during the 2024 legislative session!

Also, a huge thanks to Adeline Hodge and Amanda Gall of Meridian Public Affairs, who represent us at the Capitol every day of session. They’re also strategic partners, as we continue to refine our policy work to be more reflective and inclusive of our four new organizational commitments.

If you would like to learn more about the State Policy Committee, our efforts at the Colorado State Legislature, and how our policy work reflects our commitments, please contact our Policy Director, Greta Allen.

Let’s get ready for 2025!

Blueprint’s Policy & Community Justice Team
Charlie, Dayana, and Greta