Denver Food Pantry Scrambles After Sudden Eviction Disrupts Aid to Thousands

By Anna Coon | KDVR FOX31

DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver nonprofit that provides groceries to about 5,000 families a month said it was forced to close its doors after it was kicked out of its warehouse space.

Joy’s Kitchen, a food pantry that has operated in the Denver metro area for more than a decade, is now running pop-up food pantries in Lakewood, but organizers said they are desperate for a new permanent home.

On Sunday, volunteers worked to pack up the group’s supplies, including thousands of pounds of food, so they could temporarily set up in the gymnasium at The River Church in Lakewood.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving is typically one of the busiest days of the year for Executive Director Kathleen Stanley. Holiday weeks bring extra demand to the pantry, which she said usually serves about 1,000 families a week. This year, she was busy for an entirely different reason.

“This is such a big blow that we don’t know if we’ll recover,” Stanley said.

Stanley said Joy’s Kitchen was forced out of the warehouse space it used on West Barberry Place after the nonprofit it shared the building with asked her team to leave by 5 a.m. Nov. 25. FOX31 reached out to that organization for comment but did not hear back.

“Hundreds of people lined up here on Saturday. We came in, we talked to them, cried with them,” Stanley said. “It was really heartbreaking.”

Volunteers spent Sunday clearing out the warehouse, taping up boxes of food, hauling out refrigerators and packing up clothes. The supplies were sent to partner food pantries, storage units or loaded into a moving truck. Stanley said she is draining next month’s budget to assemble the temporary pop-up pantry while searching for a permanent location.

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