The sliding doors open, and Suzanna Brill enters King Soopers with her shopping cart, her reusable bags, and a plan. She always has a plan. Today’s mission is non-perishables.
“Normally I would look at the fruit and see if there are any kind of sales, seasonal specials, that kind of thing,” the Westminster resident says, passing by a plethora of fresh produce.
She beelines toward the buffer between the produce and the deli, where she knows there might be hummus marked down. She learned all the tricks of the trade while stocking shelves at Whole Foods in Bradburn, one of several part-time jobs she picked up to supplement her regular job with a local school district.
“I really enjoyed working there, because they have a significant discount and if you shop carefully, you can actually get a lot of affordable groceries there,” she said. “They sell a lot of expensive things like supplements and prepared foods, which is where the real money is made. You slice up fruit and all of the sudden you can charge three times as much.”
Brill’s dollars need to stretch a little more in the summer months. Her primary job with the school district is contract work, meaning summer months are unpaid. June and July’s silver lining: more time to check aisle caps and hunt for sale stickers while her son, Sebastian, attends a summer program at the Boys and Girls Club.
“At this particular moment in time I have more time than money, but once I’m back in the swing of my full-time working hours in August, I’m going to have neither time nor money,” Brill said. “So what will I do then, right?”
For now, she combs through ingredient labels and compares prices per ounce. Every product is evaluated by cost, nutritional value, and whether Sebastian will actually eat it. The Boys and Girls Club will provide him a lunch today, but Sebastian most likely won’t partake since he is such a picky eater.
She locates the only bread Sebastian likes; Rudi’s Organic Honey Sweet Whole Wheat priced at $6.29. The compromises in the cart will help pay for the bread. The cereal comes in bags, not boxes. There’s jelly, but no peanut butter. The food pantries always have peanut butter.
Brill daydreams about a Chipotle bowl loaded with vegetables, beans, and salsa while checking ingredients on store-brand pasta.
“Buy one get one free,” she says. “Happy days!”
The two packages of pasta will pair with a jar of pesto that cleared the cost-per-ounce hurdle, making a Noodles and Company knock-off “struggle-meal.” Another involves a can of Amy’s brand organic soup.
“This particular cheese tortellini soup, I heat it up to boiling and drop an egg into it.” she says. “It already has tortellini in it, you’re carbed up, and you have a little extra protein. It’s a real struggle meal, but I eat it. In the winter, these soups go on sale and you can get four cans for $5, but right now they’re $3 each. No soup today.”
Brill’s experience is unique, but not uncommon. As costs rise, thriving looks more like surviving, and food access becomes more difficult to navigate. Along with her savvy King Soopers shopping, she visits food pantries and wants others to know about the resources available in Westminster.
“Sometimes I want people to know how easy it is. Sometimes I want them to know how hard it is,” she said. “For example, the Growing Home pantry. They are a great resource in our community, especially in the heart of where I live. But their hours are extremely limited. People have to go there and stand in line and wait. And it’s in the midst of a work day.”
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On a Tuesday morning, a line of people forms behind a red brick building in Historic Westminster. Some individuals have reusable bags at their side, and all of them are holding numbered buzzers like it’s a busy restaurant. The buzzers operate like a lottery system, a solution meant to prevent disputes between line cutters and spot savers.
At exactly 10 am, the first buzzer begins vibrating, and Growing Home is officially open. Serving as Westminster’s main food pantry off 72nd Avenue and Irving Street, Growing Home offers everything from food items to hygiene products to dog food, all with no income or residency restrictions. Shopping here resembles a grocery store. Volunteers walk alongside participants and assist as personal shoppers, detailing how many of each item are available, and helping stock grocery carts.
Cynthia, an Adams County resident, is shopping alongside high schooler Jesús, who has been volunteering for a month at the behest of his grandmother.
“I’ll tell you what, they have all been so supportive and so helpful,” Cynthia said. “It’s a need for my family, so it really helps us out. This place is one of the best. They’re so organized, so clean. I like the choice model because it gives people more freedom.”
Jacqueline Gomez works for Growing Home as a marketing manager these days, but has experienced both sides of the organization’s service model.
“I’ve been in that need, and there were several food pantries that I didn’t qualify for. It’s hard sometimes for some individuals and families,” Gomez said.
“What I love as a mom is that when children come in, they don’t see their parents struggling. They’re having fun and grabbing the little shopping cart. They don’t recognize what their family may be going through because we make it more human.”
In 2025, Growing Home’s food pantry received a total of 7,205 visits, primarily adults shopping for households in Adams County. By Growing Home’s numbers, their services across all programs in 2025 reached 9,446 individuals.
Although demand for the food pantry’s service is high, Growing Home faces its own resource challenges. Food pantry hours are limited. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, the pantry is open for a single two-hour window from 10 am to noon. On Fridays, seniors take priority and receive their buzzers first.
Occasionally staff steps in and pauses their administrative work to run the pantry if there are not enough volunteers.
Growing Home previously offered help with housing, including rent and mortgage assistance, but lost that particular grant and had to pause that program. Food continues to be a significant need, especially following federal cuts to SNAP benefits in 2025.
“The community need is growing, so we’re trying to figure out how we can do this better as well,” Gomez said.
The biggest challenge is a lack of space, especially for refrigerators. That lack of storage once forced Growing Home to turn down a donation of 60 turkeys around the Thanksgiving holiday.
The space is also far from ADA accessible, requiring stairs to get from street level entrance down to the food pantry. There’s even a square window with a slide and rollers that the food is pushed through so participants don’t have to carry full bags upstairs. Wheelchair users often stay outside rather than braving a rickety lift.
How can Westminster residents help? If somebody has a spare commercial building with ADA accessible warehouse space and room for more refrigerators, that donation would be much appreciated.
For all others, there are several ways to help. Volunteering with Growing Home can help ensure the pantry remains open. Down the road with enough volunteers, they may even be able to expand their service hours.
Food donations help stock the shelves, while cash donations ensure that Growing Home can provide fresh meat, produce, and dairy items that must be purchased from local grocery partners.
Hosting a food, hygiene, diaper, or pet food drive through local schools, businesses or groups can help activate the community. At the very least, sharing information about Growing Home to social networks can help connect future volunteers and donors with ways to give.
Social media led a man named Al to Growing Home after evacuating from a wildfire in Leadville. Today, he’s shopping for himself and his family, including a seven-month-old.
“I volunteered at St Georges food pantry in Leadville, but I live closer to Twin Lakes where they were doing evacuations,” he said. “I have family who suffered some heavy losses in California, and I didn’t want to got through the same thing. Better safe than sorry.”
For Al, Growing Home has been a lifeline when he needed it most.
“This allows us to stay a step in front, save a little bit while we are still getting things organized while packing and unpacking,” he said, as his buzzer began to buzz. “Especially with having little ones, this is definitely a blessing that this is available for the community and people who need it.”
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Back at the self-checkout in King Soopers, Brill scans each of her items and carefully checks along with the beeps to make sure she is only paying the sale price.
One item beeps twice. Now she needs help. Brill has had to come to grips with asking for help ever since she moved to Westminster after losing her home in the 2021 Marshall Fire.
Today, Brill won’t be bothering the cashier to process an EBT payment. Just remove the double-scanned loaf of bread, please.
“You have to have no pride,” she said. “I haven’t always been on the struggle bus. But here I am. As long as we’re all doing our best, we should be living in a world where we all can have fresh fruits and vegetables and protein. We shouldn’t have to be anxious about having food in front of us.”
To learn more about food resources in Westminster and how you can help our neighbors in need, visit Growing Home online.