Land Trust and Mountain Roots awarded $127,292 GOCO grant

Funds will support Glacier Farm, community food insecurities

[ By Kendra Walker ]

Last month, the Crested Butte Land Trust, in partnership with the Mountain Roots Food Project, was awarded $127,292 in Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) grant funds toward its new Glacier Farm project.

The GOCO grant was a part of its Resilient Communities Program to fund one-time immediate needs or opportunities in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic and advance outdoor recreation, stewardship, and land protection projects. Statewide, GOCO awarded a total of $6,935,509 in funding to 21 projects.

The Glacier Community Farm, which came to fruition last spring with the onset of the coronavirus, is a farming project that helps address food insecurities in the valley. The food grown at Glacier Farm is distributed through Mountain Roots’ various food programs that help folks in need of food in the community.

“The Crested Butte Land Trust is honored to receive a Resilient Communities Grant from GOCO for the purpose of feeding the citizens of Gunnison County and for putting people to work on Land Trust owned property,” said Crested Butte Land Trust executive director Jake Jones. “The old Niccoli family homestead along Highway 135 that we are calling “Glacier Farm,” became an important community resource this past summer as our partnership with Mountain Roots Food Project took shape. This coming growing season, the Land Trust and Mountain Roots are building on that momentum with a huge investment from GOCO to provide the seasonal resources needed to produce as much food as possible for the community at that location.”

The GOCO funds will be used to engage and train community members in conservation and regenerative agricultural practices to augment food production at the farm. Mountain Roots and the Land Trust will train volunteers to help with crop production and harvests and improve irrigation systems.

“I am really pleased to be reviving our partnership with Crested Butte Land Trust to bring the Glacier Farm project to life. The approach this time around is highly collaborative, with both organizations contributing time, energy, resources and great ideas to get the project off the ground,” said Mountain Roots executive director Holly Conn. “The pandemic has revealed how fragile the industrial food system is and how dependent we are on it. People everywhere are turning to local food sources they know are clean, sources they can trust, and that they know are supporting their neighbors. I love the idea of addressing food insecurity through the land conservation and working agricultural lands.”