Last month, the Church of the Lord of Glory shuttered its doors, with no warning and no diversion plan for the participants of the church’s food program. That pantry, located just west of I-25 on Bijou near downtown, serves as the starting point of a corridor that extends almost three miles down Nevada and slightly east towards the Meadows Park Community Center. If you continued south a few more miles, you would encounter B Street in Stratton Meadows. Between the two areas, the median income ranges from $59,292 to $64,496, with 39% of residents holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. Yet, alongside this prosperity, the poverty rate is more than double Colorado’s state average. Unemployed and underemployed individuals who struggle to make ends meet on inadequate wages, or worse, face houselessness in one of Colorado Springs’ most economically and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. The corridor spans ZIP codes 80903 and 80905, home to over 33,000 residents.
Last week, I attended a community meeting regarding the closure of Meadows Park Community Center. I listened as the neighboring residents expressed their anger, frustration, and heartbreak as the clock ticks towards the Oct. 10, 2025, deadline for closure. Forced to say goodbye in an effort to shore up the gaps in Colorado Springs’ $31 million budget shortfall, dashed hopes are what remains where resources used to be available. No more after-school programs, no more senior lunches, and their weekly food program is in jeopardy.
Hovering in the parking lot, as a leader in the food space, I felt helpless when I saw the hope in the eyes of one resident, who may have thought I had the power to do more for her and her senior friends. “I live by myself, she said, and lunch here is one of the few times I have a chance not to feel so isolated and get out to socialize with my neighbors.”
Another neighbor scoffed at the idea of traveling to another pantry. “A lot of the people in this community have no way to get there. You know, they can’t get on a city bus and go, it’s 15 stops,” he said.
“ … these benefits aren’t ‘supplemental’ – they’re essential …” – Patience Kabwasa
As a woman of faith, it reminded me of the many years I have struggled to understand the scripture in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you…” It bothers me because it seems apathetic. Prayerfully, I inquired, Why do people experiencing poverty always have to remain? And then it hit me like a brick: the flip side of poverty is greed, and greed will always be present. That greed manifests in policy.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” will reduce SNAP spending by around $295 billion over 10 years. Here’s what that will look like for Colorado, according to Nourish Colorado, The Colorado Blueprint, and HungerFree Colorado: 298,000 will lose some or all of their SNAP benefits. [Editor’s note: Kabwasa is on the board of Nourish Colorado.] Working families with children will lose benefits, on average ranging from $25 to $88 a month. Additionally, 168,000 Coloradans, including older adults and children, will be at risk of losing benefits altogether due to the expanded work requirements that take effect on Oct. 1, 2025. This local crisis reflects a statewide emergency unfolding across Colorado.
For many families here, the closure of food assistance programs isn’t just an inconvenience – it’s a crisis that pushes already vulnerable households closer to the edge. The scale of need becomes even clearer when examining the full scope of the legislation’s impact. Since the beginning of this year, Meadows Park has served 6,144 neighboring residents through its no-cost grocery program of which Food to Power is a part.
Here’s the thing: SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but for underemployed families and people in the corridor, these benefits aren’t ‘supplemental’ – they’re essential. Many depend on SNAP as their entire food budget, filling any remaining gaps with items from food programs. To qualify, a household must earn less than 200% of the federal poverty line, which translates to an average of $6.10 per person per day, or $2.03 per meal. At that price point, ‘nutritious’ and ‘adequate’ become luxuries families can’t afford.
This corridor contains dozens of faith communities with significant resources. While exact property values for all religious institutions in the area aren’t publicly available, we know from national data that in 2024 religious institutions received over $146 billion in charitable giving according to a Giving USA report. In Colorado Springs alone – known as a hub for evangelical organizations – more than 500 ministries in this community call Colorado Springs their home. Churches have long been the backbone of charitable giving in America, with Mercy’s Gate alone serving over 16,000 pantry users annually. But the scale of what’s coming – thousands of local SNAP recipients losing benefits, families surviving on $2.03 meals – requires more than existing food pantry hours or holiday donation drives. It requires an urgent, coordinated, and sustained mobilization of every available resource. One faith institution or organization cannot feed the community on its own.
