Denver is losing an agricultural program that served thousands of families

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Cinthia Garcia and her three children rarely visit the grocery store to buy produce — they grow almost all of their own vegetables in their Commerce City backyard.

Garcia learned to grow produce from Metro Caring’s Urban Agriculture program, which provided seeds, classes, tools, soil and garden plots to households in the Denver area.

On March 26, Metro Caring, an anti-hunger nonprofit, announced it would shut down the Urban Agriculture program.

“Like many other organizations, we’re in the position where we have to make difficult but necessary decisions to ensure our long-term sustainability,” said Teva Sienicka, Metro Caring CEO. 

Nicole Lang, co-chair of the Metro Caring board, declined to detail the nonprofit’s finances but said they did not raise enough money to meet budget goals in 2024.

“We just fiscally weren't making our budget this year,” Lang said. “It was funding and it was overall fundraising.”

Metro Caring serves around 700 families a week through its Fresh Foods Market, a free grocery store-style market with fresh produce. Lang said in order to keep offering this service — which she views as the organization’s most important program — something else had to go.

“These are hard times and we have an uncertain future and we have to start looking at the full scope of what Metro Caring is offering,” Lang said.

Sienicka added that the organization is bracing for an uncertain future due to the up-and-down rollout of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which are expected to increase costs.

Garcia was hopeful her vegetables and the knowledge she learned from the program would defend against rising prices. The more food she could grow, the less she’d have to buy.

“We are all worried about how expensive things are going to become,” Garcia said. 

She plans to keep growing peppers, lettuce and tomatoes in her backyard, but said losing access to Metro Caring’s seeds and tools, as well as the classes she attended to build her community, will be a “devastating” loss.

“It just became a big network community that I don’t think is replaceable,” Garcia said. “It feels like a part of my family has been taken apart.”

Garcia met other moms from Brighton, Aurora and Westminster in the class. She enjoyed sharing gardening tips with them. She acknowledged she can still do this, but that it can, it “won’t be the same.”

Eve Hemingway, who led Urban Agriculture for Metro Caring, said what set the program apart was its focus on teaching people how to grow food anywhere, regardless of space or resources.

Metro Caring offered 33 rentable community garden plots, and more than 6,000 households received seeds from the nonprofit. According to Hemingway, 80% of those who received seeds were considered food insecure, meaning they lacked reliable access to fresh, nutritious food due to financial constraints, geographic isolation or both.

“It’s the revolutionary side of growing your own food and the autonomy that comes with that,” Hemingway said. “You can't fight the entire global food system without growing your own plants, because they can't kill the plants in your backyard, and they can't stop the plant from growing.”

Lang said Metro Caring’s board believes in urban agriculture as a concept and hopes those who relied on their program can find similar services elsewhere. Denver Urban Gardens, which also offers community gardening and community seed distribution, is another option.

“This is important work and we need to make sure it continues, just maybe not with Metro Caring,” Lang said.

Lang said the board has not ironed out all of its details, but hopes they can redistribute the resources Metro Caring used to another organization in the area.

“Just because it’s not going to be under Metro Caring’s roof doesn't mean we don’t support it and we'll make sure it will be successful within our community,” Lang said. “It’s just hard while we’re in this in-between gray area right now.”

Hemingway said much of Metro Caring Urban Agriculture’s appeal was how it was a one-stop shop for resources, community connections and gardening supplies. While other organizations could potentially fill some of those gaps, Hemingway believes those who used their program will still suffer devastating losses.

Hemingway’s job was also eliminated when the program was cut. Metro Caring Workers’ United — the union for Metro Caring staff — filed an unfair labor complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint alleges Hemingway’s job was unfairly cut without negotiations from the union. Lang and Sienicka declined to discuss the complaint.

“The community will lose access to not just all of our free resources but they’re also going to be losing access to a community building space and community organizing space,” Hemingway said. “Meeting a farmer and then being able to talk to that farmer about a pest they’re seeing in the backyard is something that’s going to be harder for a lot of our folks.”