The Austin, Texas-based grocer announced Thursday that the new store will replace a longtime location at 14357 W. Colfax Ave., which has served the community for over 27 years.

With 26,000 square feet of additional space, improved vehicle access and more dedicated parking, the new store is larger than the former nearby location.

Opening 8 a.m. Dec. 9, the new store will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The first 300 customers in line will receive a custom tote bag and Secret Saver coupon featuring offers up to $100 off.

The new location’s product assortment features more than 800 local items from Colorado-based suppliers.

The new Colfax store will feature an expanded produce department featuring a wide variety of organic and locally sourced items. The store’s beer and wine sectionwill offer over 570 wines and 360 beers, including 75 beers from 30 local suppliers.

The specialty department will showcase artisan cheeses overseen by cheese mongers, who can provide recommendations for any occasion and craft custom cheese boards, while the grocery section will offer grind-your-own nut butters, bulk coffee and more than 600 products.

To celebrate the opening, Whole Foods Market will provide a food donation to Lakewood nonprofit , which makes regular surplus food pickups from local Whole Foods Market stores to help prevent food waste and serve the surrounding community.

The donation is part of Whole Foods Market����ap .

Whole Foods Market will also present Denver-based supplier with a low-interest loan through the Whole Foods Market Lending Program to support their national expansion into approximately 390 Whole Foods Market locations.

Through the program, Whole Foods Market lends money to small-scale, local or emerging producers to help them grow their businesses. To date, the retailer has provided 430 loans, representing roughly $39 million in capital for recipients, according to a November news release.

The grocer recently celebrated the opening of its new 43,000-square-foot store in Parker last month at 8665 Kings Point Way by donating food to the Colorado nonprofit Help & Hope Center, and providing a low-interest loan to Denver-based supplier SAM+LEO.

Additionally, Whole Foods Market is planning to open a new 35,500-square-foot store in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood.

The 122,000-square-foot Marketplace store will feature a range of amenities, including sushi, a Murray’s Cheese Shop and a Starbucks cafe. Shoppers will also have access to pickup and delivery services, a drive-thru pharmacy and a new fuel center equipped with five pumps and eight EV charging stations.

“We are thrilled for the opportunity to serve the Louisville community with another store and remain committed to being a great community partner,” said Chris Albi, President of King Soopers.

“This project allows us to grow our footprint, better serve our loyal customers, and invest in the future of this community.”

King Soopers anticipates the new store will open in the summer of 2026 and will provide more than 250 jobs.

The new site represents a $23.6 million investment and is part of King Soopers’ long-term growth strategy, according to a Friday news release.

Additionally, in alignment with their social impact plan, the retail giant said it donated $5,000 to , a food bank fighting food insecurity across Boulder and Broomfield counties. King Soopers employs over 22,000 associates and has 120 grocery stores across 37 cities in Colorado.

The news not only raised concerns about potential job losses, but about reduced access to groceries for low-income residents — the creation of “food deserts” — and the negative impact the closures could have on Front Range neighborhoods and small towns on the Eastern Plains.

That said, some Safeway customers The Post talked to this week acknowledged their neighborhood stores were old and needed work if they were to stay open.

Safeway informed the state in 10 separate letters under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act on Tuesday that it would be letting go of a combined 617 workers as a result of store closures along the Front Range.

“The store is expected to close to the public on Nov. 7, 2025, but associates could continue to work at the store to close operations for a period of time after that date,” wrote Heather Halpape, director of communications for Safeway’s Mountain West Division, in a phrase repeated in all of the letters the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment received.

Halpape also said the company hoped to find employment at other stores for some of the workers being let go.

The cities impacted include Englewood, Northglenn, Denver, Aurora, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, La Junta and Lamar.

The largest layoff, 85 workers, will happen at the store at 1425 S. Murray Blvd. in Colorado Springs, and the smallest one, 50 workers, will occur at the store at 860 Cleveland Ave. in Loveland.

On average, 62 workers are being let go per store.

“This closure affects 53 dedicated associates in Lamar, and while Safeway has plans to place some into positions at other locations, we recognize the deep impact this will have on these employees, their families, and our community as a whole,” wrote Lamar Mayor Kirk Crespin in a . Lamar is a small town in southeast Colorado on U.S. 50.

“While this is a significant loss, Lamar is a resilient and strong community. We will continue working closely with our economic development partners to recruit new businesses — especially one that can provide similar goods and services to meet the needs of our residents.”

Even with a Walmart Supercenter only a short drive from the Safeway closing at 906 E. Olive St., and Farmer’s Country Market close by, Lamar is losing a valuable grocery store option.

Michael Hart, city manager for La Junta, also shared a similar sentiment with Lamar’s mayor.

“It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the news that our Safeway grocery store will be closing its doors permanently,” he said on to the community.

“While this closure is difficult, it is not the end of La Junta’s story. Our community is resilient. We are already engaging with regional and national partners to explore new grocery options that will meet the needs of our residents and strengthen our local economy.”

La Junta also has a Walmart Supercenter on U.S. 50.

Crespin said that he was told that the decision to close their Safeway was made because of lower sales, the increase of expenses from the labor strike that happened earlier this year, and the failed Safeway/Albertsons merger with competitor King Soopers and City Market.

UFCW Local 7, which represents workers at eight of the 10 Colorado stores set for closure, said in a statement that they are also working to ensure that workers at all of the affected stores are given as many options as possible to remain employed.

However, the Union anticipates that the closures could result in hundreds of job losses.

“We call on Safeway to rethink this disastrous approach to shrinking its corporate footprint and, instead, invest in Colorado communities with new and improved stores,” said UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova.

Neighborhood impact

This isn’t the first time a grocery store closure has prompted concern.

The Montbello community faced a similar situation nearly a decade ago when its only full-size grocery store, also a Safeway, closed its doors, creating a significant gap in food access and turning the neighborhood into a “food desert,” according to Donna Garnett, CEO of the Montbello Organizing Committee.

“Immediately afterward was, ‘what are we going to do? Where are we going to shop?’ Our community was — and is still, a community that is — somewhat isolated,”  she said.

“It was certainly a great concern to folks.”

When asked about the immediate and long-term effects on a community when a big-box grocery store or the only nearby grocery store closes, Garnett said it can have significant impacts.

These include reduced access to food, difficulty obtaining groceries because of limited transportation, job loss and even negative effects on a person’s health, especially when the only remaining options are convenience stores.

“You’re sort of left with purchasing processed foods or not having access to fresh meats and fresh produce. That begins to take a toll on the health and wellness of people,” she said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Safeway customer Mary Jo Bush called the news “a sign of the times” after learning the company plans to shut down stores across the state. Yet Bush said she saw it coming.

“I’m not really surprised, it����ap an old store,” she said of the Aurora location at 12200 E. Mississippi Ave., which she said is notoriously “unkept” and “dirty.”

Nearby resident Sebastian Jones said the closure “kind of sucks” as he takes the bus to get groceries for himself and roommates.

Jones said Safeway has a few cheap options, however, he doesn’t expect the closure to significantly affect his daily access to groceries, as there are several alternatives nearby.

Directly across from the Safeway in Aurora is GW Supermarket, and just a six-minute drive down Mississippi Avenue, shoppers can find a King Soopers, Costco and Sprouts Farmers Market.

Near the Denver Safeway at 1653 S. Colorado Blvd., other options include King Soopers, Whole Foods Market, Natural Grocers and Target.

Another shopper, Will, who preferred to only share his first name, said many people will lose their jobs as a result of the closures and called it a “management problem.” He also said that recent price increases have not helped the situation.

In Loveland, customers of the store on North Cleveland Avenue not only worried about the impending impact on them, but on the employees they’ve gotten to know over the years.

“All the cashiers, the managers, everybody in there — they’re wonderful people,” said Tim DiNoia, a longtime customer. “I don’t want them to lose their job, and hopefully they can absorb them into the other stores.”

Garnett said the most impactful outcome of the closure in her neighborhood a decade ago was the community’s unified response to food insecurity. This response led to the creation of the , a network of nonprofits and school gardens committed to providing healthy and accessible meals to families in need.

It also led to Montbello’s FreshLo Hub project, a mixed-use development project aimed to bring affordable housing, retail, an arts education center, mental health services and a nonprofit grocery store known as the Montbello FreshLo Fresh Food Market.

The market, located near Peoria Street and East Albrook Drive, is expected to open by mid next year, covering 5,200 square feet of grocery space that will offer grocery staples, fresh produce and made-from-scratch prepared foods.

Garnett said they are very close to closing on the final financing that they need to build out the store and have it staffed by people from the community.

“That was a community response to the fact that, well, are we just going to sit back and wait for somebody to come here and address our food needs? No, we’re going to take it on as a systemic issue and really build out a lot of capacity,” she said.

Garnett said the goal will be to open three stores starting starting in March, with the capacity of building toward at least five stores total in the next two years in Denver.

“While my focus started on Montbello, it is understood that the need for access to affordable, healthy, wholesome, nutritious food is not just a Montbello issue. It is across this country,” she said.

The following Colorado Safeway stores are set to close by Nov. 7:

• 201 E. Jefferson Ave., Englewood
• 500 E. 120th Ave, Northglenn
• 1653 S. Colorado Blvd., Denver
• 12200 E. Mississippi Ave., Aurora
• 3657 S. College Ave, Fort Collins
• 860 Cleveland Ave., Loveland
• 5060 N. Academy Blvd., Colorado Springs
• 1425 S. Murray Blvd., Colorado Springs
• 315 W. 2nd St., La Junta
• 906 E. Olive St., Lamar

Loveland Reporter-Herald reporter Jocelyn Rowley contributed to this report.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday approved a waiver from Colorado seeking to exempt soda and sugary beverages from SNAP beginning in 2026.

Gov. Jared Polis, in a statement, said the waiver marks a “big step towards improving the health of Coloradans, and reducing obesity rates, diabetes and tooth decay.”

The governor added that he hoped the change will help alleviate food deserts in the state by reducing shelf space for soda and increasing it for other nutritional food products eligible for SNAP.

The USDA on Monday also approved waivers for West Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas to amend the statutory definition of food for purchase under the federal food-assistance program.

“For years, SNAP has used taxpayer dollars to fund soda and candy — products that fuel America’s diabetes and chronic disease epidemics,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, in a statement. “These waivers help put real food back at the center of the program and empower states to lead the charge in protecting public health. I thank these governors who have stepped up to request waivers, and I encourage others to follow their lead. This is how we Make America Healthy Again.”

Colorado is still waiting for federal approval for two additional waiver provisions that would allow SNAP recipients to use their benefits to buy hot, prepared foods from grocery stores, and streamline the process for farmers market vendors to accept SNAP payments.

Polis has long sought these changes to the federal food program. A decade ago, while serving as a congressman, he brought forward an amendment that would have made junk food and soda ineligible for SNAP.

“Giving states the opportunity to focus on having healthier foods in SNAP should be our priority,” he on X in December.

Colorado’s lawsuit in Denver District Court is one of three challenging the $24.6 billion deal that would combine two of the country’s largest grocers. A trial in Washington state’s lawsuit against the proposal is underway.

And a decision is expected in a trial in Oregon in which sued to block the merger until it can resolve its administrative proceeding against what it says would be the largest supermarket consolidation in U.S. history. The FTC is fighting the plan on grounds that it would drive up prices for millions of Americans and drive down competition.

The attorneys general of Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming joined the FTC’s lawsuit. Kroger is suing to stop the FTC’s administrative proceeding, saying it’s unconstitutional.

In Colorado, where Kroger owns King Soopers and City Market stores and Albertsons Cos. owns Safeway, the attorney general’s office said the grocers account for more than 50% of the market share and combining them would violate state antitrust laws. Attorney General Phil Weiser filed a lawsuit in February to oppose the merger after holding 19 town halls across the state to hear from the public.

“I can actually tell you in all of the 19 town halls and the hundreds of people who I got to hear from directly, not a single person said to me, ‘I think this merger is a good idea,’ ” Weiser said in an interview.

Instead, people were concerned about food prices going even higher if the supermarket chains team up, Weiser said. Employees fear losing their jobs and seeing stores close, as some did after Albertsons acquired Safeway in 2015.

Weiser said Colorado farmers who sell their produce to King Soopers and Albertsons worry that they’ll lose out if the companies consolidate. The two currently compete against each other for such popular fare as peaches grown in Palisade.

At a Thursday news conference to discuss the lawsuit, Weiser said when consumers have fewer choices and can’t get fresh food locally, they fare worse.

“What I learned and what I saw during this whole process inspired me,” said Weiser. “Our supermarkets are part of our town square. People meet each other down at town square. The workers know who the consumers are. The consumers know who the workers are, disinvesting, having less competition, having less choice in availability of supermarkets harms our society.”

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, which represents grocery workers in Colorado and Wyoming, is part of fighting the merger, which was announced in 2022.

Kroger and Albertsons executives have said the merger will position them better to compete against such non-union grocery giants as Walmart and Costco and discount stores such as Dollar General.

“Albertsons Cos. merging with Kroger will expand competition, lower prices, increase associate wages, protect union jobs, and enhance customers’ shopping experience,” Albertsons said in an email. “Blocking this merger would only serve to strengthen larger, non-unionized retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, by allowing them to maintain and increase their overwhelming and growing dominance of the grocery industry.”

accounting for about a quarter of the U.S. grocery sales in 2023 and bringing in roughly $505 billion. Kroger was second with approximately $148 billion in sales, followed by Costco and Albertsons.

But Weiser’s office said it found emails while going through documents that show the two companies view each other as competitors. His office is seeking a $1 million civil penalty from each grocer for what he called no-poach and non-solicitation agreements during a 2022 strike against King Soopers.

Colorado’s lawsuit said emails between Kroger and Albertsons executives outline agreements by Albertsons not to hire any King Soopers employees or solicit King Soopers pharmacy customers during the strike. The agreements were unlawful, according to the complaint.

“When the complaint came out, that was news. That was a big deal,” said Christine Bartholomew, a professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law who practiced antitrust law. “If the evidence backs that up, the argument that Kroger and Albertsons are making, which is ‘We’re not really competing against each other. It’s us against the Walmarts and the Dollar Generals of the world,’ becomes a little harder to accept.”

Kroger denied there were any non-solicitation or no-poach agreements.

“Kroger competes for talent in a broad and diverse labor market, including from non-grocery, non-union retailers like restaurants, food service companies, conveniences, warehouses and more. In fact, data shows that only 1-2.5% of Kroger associates come from and/or move to Albertsons,” Kroger said in an email.

Kroger owns 148 stores in Colorado and 2,700 nationwide. Albertsons has 105 stores in the state and about 2,200 across the country.

Consolidating the two chains would have a profound effect on Coloradans, the state’s lawsuit said.

“Combined, they would control more than half of the supermarket industry in Colorado. And in many local areas, the resulting impact would be even greater,” according to the lawsuit.

The trial is expected to take up to three weeks.

Workers, communities, customers

In an effort to ease concerns about a merger’s impact on competition, Kroger and Albertsons said they’ll sell 579 of their stores to New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers. The number of Colorado stores that would be unloaded is 91: two Albertsons, the rest under the Safeway banner.

Albertsons and Kroger executives said stores won’t be closed and frontline workers won’t lose their jobs if the merger is approved. Critics don’t buy the pledges.

“I was one of the victims of the 2015 merger where Albertsons bought Safeway,” said Tom Olson, who now works for UFCW Local 7.

Olson was the produce manager in a Safeway store in Lakewood when Albertsons acquired Safeway. He said 43 stores were closed in Colorado and because he had less seniority, he got bumped to a job that paid less.

Haggen Food and Pharmacy, a small supermarket chain based in Washington state, bought some of the stores and in less than a year filed for bankruptcy. Haggen closed more than 100 stores and laid off thousands of workers, The Associated Press reported.

Faye Guenther, president of UFCW Local 3000, which represents grocery workers in the Northwest, said she is afraid history will repeat itself if Kroger and Albertsons stores are sold to C&S. She said the company is a distributor, not a grocery store chain, and runs just a few groceries and pharmacies.

“We’re just very concerned about C&S being Haggen 2.0,” Guenther said.

Olson worries about the Safeway store in Golden where he last worked. “A lot of the customers walk to that store. If they don’t have reliable transportation and they close that store, how are those people going to get to the store? The next closest Safeway is 6 miles away.”

Olson also worries that union membership will decrease if C&S takes over stores and decides not to continue collective bargaining. “That will reduce our membership, endangering our pension and our health care,” he said.

Kroger has said  that all existing collective bargaining agreements will continue.

“C&S has only agreed to honor contracts until they expire. Our contracts start expiring in January,” Olson said.

Weiser said he sued to stop the merger out of concerns about the effects on workers, communities, customers and local suppliers. He heard from people who moved to other towns for work in the last round of closures who now worry they could lose their jobs again. Former grocery stores still sit empty in some neighborhoods.

And food deserts were created after the 2015 Albertsons-Safeway merger, Weiser said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition of a food desert considers the poverty rate and in an urban area applies when at least 500 people and/or at least 33% of the population lives more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.

Denver’s Montbello neighborhood hasn’t had a full-service grocery store since the merger in 2015. Donna Garnett, the CEO of the Montbello Organizing Committee, said community members talked to several national grocery chains about opening a store. They were told the area didn’t meet the companies’ criteria, including education level, which relates to income levels.

The campaign to open a grocery store led to years of working on a $97 million project that includes affordable housing and a nonprofit grocery store expected to open in early 2025.

Patience Kabwasa, executive director of the nonprofit Food to Power, said at Thursday’s news conference if the merger goes through it could affect the livelihood and health of communities of color and low-income households.

“You lose a place to buy your prescription drugs, you lose a place to pay your bills (and) you lose a place to access local food,” she said.

In an earlier interview, Weiser added, “It’s important to me that we were able to go directly to the people of Colorado, listen really hard and from that build a strong framework, build a strong foundation to go to court and fight this merger.”

12:35 p.m. Thursday: The story was updated by Denver Post reporter Jessica Alvarado Gamez to include comments made at a Thursday morning news conference held by the attorney general’s office.

“I remember that number so vividly,” he said. His very next thought: “There is pizza or a sandwich or cookies somewhere on this campus that is fastly approaching the trash can.”

That college experience sparked the idea for a new app called . And in the last year, Akinboyewa, a 39-year-old Denver resident, and his three team members have brought his vision to life.

The free app follows a basic premise: A user in a small geographic area who wants to get rid of a food item can post it for another user to request and then pick up. Restaurants, food banks and other sizable providers can connect with individuals, and neighbors can link with neighbors.

Users can share either with the public or solely within their own “villages,” which are limited to specific groups like religious organizations or homeowners associations.

The app can be used to arrange very small-scale and extremely large-scale food distribution, Akinboyewa added. If an office staffer has 25 leftover sandwiches after an event, then that user can post the food items in their village and alert others to the surplus.

But to work effectively, the app needs a balance of both providers and users.

He’s developed the app to protect user privacy, keep track of food donations, avoid lines at food pickups and more. In its beta phase, the app granted access to 500 invite-only users across six cities in four countries — the U.S., Nigeria, Colombia and the United Kingdom — before expanding to nearly 1,000 users, Akinboyewa said.

Soon, his team plans to permit tens of thousands of users through several university, community and business partnerships, he said.

The app is available now on and , using an invite code: HUNGREE500.

For Akinboyewa, who was born in Nigeria and resided in London before immigrating to the U.S., the Hungree app is a way to fight hunger and curb food waste. In the places he’s lived, he’s seen the struggle of food insecurity.

Now, he’s watching his strategy work in real time. A local steakhouse manager listed leftover meals on the app — three servings of steak and vegetables — and another user picked them up to hand out to people experiencing homelessness, Akinboyewa said.

“I love solving problems,” said Akinboyewa, who has a background as a consultant in the oil and gas industry. “Sometimes, the simple solution is actually what works.”

To take his app to the next level, Akinboyewa hopes to garner institutional and organizational support. He’s discussed the idea with leaders at the University of Colorado Boulder who are in charge of off-campus housing, which could result in thousands of students accessing the app.

Akinboyewa wants to connect with local businesses and feature them on the app, too. He’s looking for financial backing that lets him roll it out on a larger scale.

Hungree’s nonprofit status was approved by the state on Monday. But the organization’s technology branch is for-profit, with plans to make money through investors and a business model that will eventually let users pay for enhanced features, Akinboyewa said.

“I’ll be sincere about something: Being Black in tech, you’re not connected to the right communities to help get the funding,” he said.

Still, he’s seeing progress globally. And in the next few weeks, a major update will bring multilingual support to the app, expanding beyond English to add Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Turkish.

Akinboyewa’s hope: “In five to seven years, we want half a billion people on there,” he said. “There are big dreams to this.”

The Italian market and deli is opening its third location this May in a standalone 3,800-square-foot building at 12955 E. Montview Ave. in Aurora next door to The Benson Hotel & Faculty Club.

Spinelli’s is co-owned by restaurant industry veterans John Moutzouris, who bought the original Park Hill location at 4621 E. 23rd Ave., from owners Jerry and Mary Ellen Spinelli in 2014, along with Jake Riederer, former owner of Open Sandwiches, and his wife, Cecelia Jones.

The owners were approached by Apartment Income REIT Corp. (AIR Communities) to open a Spinelli’s within the real estate investment trust’s in the center of the Anschutz Medical and Fitzsimons Innovation Campuses after a previous grocer tenant fell through. AIR Communities is finishing up 253 new homes in the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, near the 21 Fitzsimons Apartment Homes, a 600-unit community that AIR Communities acquired in 2014. Jones said 90 percent of the units are occupied.

“They wanted to still bring the grocer amenity they promised to the community,” Jones said. “We are lucky enough to have this brand new facility that they built, and we get to walk leisurely into it, which is great because Congress Park was not a leisurely stroll.”

The trio recently took over the former 12th Avenue Market & Deli space and opened a second deli location dubbed Congress Park Market in November.

The new Aurora shop will sell its popular sandwiches, like Jerry’s Classic Italian; the California Classic; the turkey gouda and cranberry; the Caprese; and the muffuletta, in addition to produce, pantry staples, beer and wine and ready-to-heat entrees. Since it’s located next to a hotel, there will also be toiletry items and retail products from local vendors.

“We’ve always said we believe our model can bring food to food deserts,” Riederer said. “The Anschutz campus has a group of people who are underserved that have to get in their car in order to find fresh vegetables at an affordable, walkable place.”

Spinelli’s will also cater lunches and events at the nearby hotel and medical campuses. “Panera Bread does crazy catering for the medical campus, and we think we can offer something new for the campus with our boxed lunch program that we already have at Spinelli’s in Park Hill for the last 30 years,” Jones said.

Spinelli’s will be joining new retailers: Milieu Fermentation, a craft brewery specializing in small-batch, artisanal beers; full-service hair salon Sable and Siren Hair Co.; and WOW Scrubs, a shop for medical scrubs and accessories. They’ll open alongside existing businesses: Cedar Creek Pub, Lost Coffee and CVS Specialty.

Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.

A partnership between the city and soon could launch an operation that supplies food-producing plant starts and perennials to residents, community groups and urban farms at affordable prices. The greenhouses also would grow culturally relevant foods for Aurora’s diverse communities, along with plants that thrive better inside — helping local farms and community organizations that need larger quantities of them.

“The greenhouse work is really about creating new jobs, increasing food production and access to fresh food in the city of Aurora, and providing additional educational opportunities,” said Caitlin Matthews, the executive director of Food Justice NW Aurora.

The city has earmarked $350,000 to renovate the two large greenhouses at 151 Potomac St., which have about 7,300 square feet in combined growing space. City staff recommended the approval of Food Justice’s proposal to operate a community project, and the nonprofit group has now completed a business plan that it expects to present to the City Council early this year for approval.

If it receives the green light, the group will establish “Cultivate Aurora: A Community Greenhouse Project.” One of the structures would host educational workshops on gardening and landscaping for individuals as well as horticulture and job-training programs.

Food Justice NW Aurora and other community groups say the greenhouse project is one way to fill gaps in the local food system. It would provide residents with direct access to fresh, affordable or culturally important foods, especially in parts of Aurora where there aren’t many grocery stores or easy access to garden harvests.

“Greenhouses are really a critical piece of infrastructure that most farms, particularly smaller-scale farms, and also community gardens and home gardeners typically don’t have access to,” Matthews said. “And because in Colorado we have such a short growing season, season-extension infrastructure, like greenhouses or hoop houses, are really critical in order to be able to start plants earlier and then get a more abundant harvest.”

For James Grevious, an Aurora farmer whose focus has been on mass production of food for the community, the project has the potential to power some of that growth. Farmers like him would gain a new source of seedlings and plant starters that aren’t normally available at big-box stores — or at least not in the quantities that they need, he said.

“To support a local food system that we are talking that we need, we do need to have a community-controlled resource where we can sustain that operation,” Grevious said.

Food Justice NW Aurora has committed more money for improvements to the greenhouses, including for accessibility changes. It would lease the greenhouses from the city while covering all costs for operations, maintenance and utilities.

The group has raised more than $200,000 for operating costs in the first full year. It plans to collaborate with other organizations, including Village Exchange Center, Project Worthmore, Denver Urban Gardens, Aurora Seed Farm, Urban Symbiosis and Pickens Technical College.

One of the project’s goals is to make fresh produce available at cheaper prices, especially for those who live in food deserts, whether through direct sales or sales from other farmers, Matthews said. Residents would be able to pay on a sliding scale and use their food-assistance benefits.

Grevious, who is Black, was one of the founding members of Food Justice’s steering committee. He runs three businesses that connect different parts of the local food system: Rebels in the Garden, an urban farm where people can grow their products; Urban Symbiosis, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding fresh food access; and Rebel Marketplace, a farmers market for selling those products.

“Food is a unifier, and it’s the one thing that we have in common across all ideologies, races, creeds, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “So the greenhouses can act as a connector with the broader Aurora base.”

Denver Urban Gardens has been involved since the project’s inception. The nonprofit plans to purchase seedlings for its food access program and help with educational programming.

For communities that lack convenient access to affordable and healthy food, projects like the Aurora initiative can empower people and give them more options to grow their own food, said Brittany Pimentel, director of operations for Denver Urban Gardens.

Matthews anticipates the project will create at least two full-time jobs, one part-time job and 1,500 hours of seasonal work just in the spring.

Aurora Councilwoman Crystal Murillo, who worked with residents in her ward to support the greenhouses project, sees it as a way to build up “community wealth” — through job development, better food access and sharing of knowledge.

“If we get that passed, it would be a much-needed and missing link in our local food system in order to provide more cost-effective and culturally relevant foods,” Murillo said. “And it would allow us to partner with the existing organizations that are already doing stuff like that, to either provide direct services or (help) with jobs.”

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

“My wife and I started really thinking about the neighborhood market industry and loved the idea of opening in spots with food deserts or just revitalizing little neighborhood markets,” he said.

Their first opportunity was very close to home.

John Moutzouris, , 4621 E. 23rd Ave., from owners Jerry and Mary Ellen Spinelli in 2014, offered to sell half of the Park Hill neighborhood Italian market and deli to Riederer and his wife, Cecelia Jones. And it just so happened that Riederer’s mom lives in Park Hill, while Jones’ first-ever job was at Spinelli’s when she was a teenager.

“We were in talks with a couple of owners and John said, ‘Well, why don’t you just buy into Spinelli’s? I’m tired,’” Riederer said. “It was a quick route to learn the business.”

Now, Riederer, Jones and Moutzouris, whose family has owned in the Hilltop neighborhood for 40 years, are getting ready to take over 12th Avenue Market & Deli at 2620 E. 12th Ave. in Congress Park, which also has a 40-year history. Current owners Shaun and Stephanie Johnson are retiring after 18 years of ownership, according to Riederer.

The 12th Avenue Market will continue to operate until the end of October, and Riederer, Jones and Moutzouris hope to reopen it as Congress Park Market by Nov. 15.

“It����ap important for us to continue to honor the neighborhood the same way that 12th Avenue Market did for so long,” Riederer said. “We’re not trying to force something new on it. We want to continue serving every population that comes in, and we’ll have EBT (Colorado’s food assistance cards) available so anyone can access fresh produce and a good meal.”

The trio plans to keep the tiny U.S. Postal Service office that inhabits the space, although they will move it toward the front. Then they’ll use the space in the back for a deli.

“My mom … visits the post office all the time to drop things off, so I know what an important part of the community it is,” Riederer said. “With USPS having a tough time, there are a lot of people who utilize it, and it����ap important to continue to serve the community in the same way.”

Congress Park Market will have a full deli counter with hand-cut deli meats and cheese, but no raw meat. There will be fresh produce, side salads like potato and macaroni, plus wine and beer.

As for Spinelli’s much-loved sandwiches, Congress Park Market will serve five of the most popular ones: Jerry’s Classic Italian; the California Classic; the turkey gouda and cranberry; the Caprese; and the muffuletta. But there also will be five new creations from chef Michael Neale, who previously worked at the upscale Chinese food restaurant Hop Alley, including a Japanese egg salad sandwich, a BLT with bacon jam, and a Korean fried chicken sandwich.

And although Spinelli’s still serves two of the specialties from Open Sandwiches — The Lee, a slow-roasted beef sandwich (by Hop Alley and Uncle owner Tommy Lee) and The Rodriguez (an iteration of a cochinita pibil from restaurateur and Casa Bonita head chef Dana Rodriguez) — “there will be no Open sandwiches served at Congress Park Market to start.”

“We wanted to give Michael Neale the room to flex his creative brain and come up with something special to him,” Riederer said.

Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.

Crepes ‘n Crepes will now open daily at 8 a.m. at 1222 Madison St. in Congress Park.

Alexandra Pozdnyak, who owns the restaurant with her husband, mother and stepfather, told BusinessDen Friday that she hopes it continues to draw those who flocked to its previous location at 2816 E. 3rd Ave.

“It����ap the same vibe,” she said. “We made sure to keep everything authentic as it was before.”

The menu will be slightly larger, with more salad options and non-crepe entrees like chicken with mushroom, which previously had been served only within the thin French pancakes.

Pozdnyak said she’s been involved with the business for about four years and that her stepfather and mother Alain and Ellina Veratti are making preparations to retire.

Avant Group broker Jason Ruscio helped the creperie find its new location. Pozdnyak said she’s excited to have a standalone building, formerly home to Billy’s Inn and TAG Burger Bar, as well as on-site parking.

“I know that was definitely an issue for people in Cherry Creek,” she said.

Pozdnyak said Crepes ‘n Crepes, which once had multiple locations in Denver, will be open every day, closing at 10 p.m. every day except Monday, when it will close at 3 p.m.

Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.