Connecting You to Chaffee County’s Agricultural Community

This website connects local consumers with our community’s food providers. It’s simply a local food guide that’s convenient and easy to use.

But that is only part of the story. Supporting agriculture, even with the smallest purchase, helps keep this place intact. Productive land provides our stunning views, water quality and wildlife habitat, and protects our valuable lands from over-development. The agricultural sector is the county’s fifth-largest economic driver. It exists and endures because of our neighbors who work these lands.

Chaffee Provides is about food security

The program was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, as vulnerabilities in our nation’s food system became apparent. Grocery store shelves looked bare for a time because of bottlenecks in labor, transportation and international imports. Perhaps you remember feeling anxious about food security.

At the same time, a beloved food market closed in Salida and a large family farm operation announced its closure in Buena Vista. Restaurants had to shut their doors or drastically change operations for unknown periods of time. Under all of this uncertainty, community desire to know about local food and how to get it become more important than ever. To address the need, the Chaffee County Community Foundation started a group-based grant program called the Food Access Cohort, where grantees work together to increase coordination and ensure all Chaffee families and individuals have access to nutritious food. This website is a part of that program.

Local Agriculture Provides a Bounty of Food

There are thousands of cows and many hundreds of rows of fresh lettuce and other crisp, ripe vegetables criss-crossing our valley. There are fresh eggs, cheese, milk, honey and lamb, poultry and pork in addition to beef.

Chaffee Provides is an easy, convenient way to expand your access to locally raised and grown, fresh and healthy food. CSAs, brick-and-mortar retail outlets, farmer’s markets, restaurants serving local ingredients and food banks are all promoted here, along with information that will directly connect you with ranchers and farmers that have food to share and sell.

Keep Working Land Working

Chaffee Provides hails from the Envision Chaffee County vision of a future with continued beautiful rural landscapes through sustained agriculture and focused new development. The initiative’s strategy is to support the agricultural bounty we already have for the benefit of everyone.

Envision partnered with Guidestone Colorado to create this site. Guidestone’s mission is to grow a vibrant agricultural future through education, community building, and partnerships. The organization’s strategies are founded on the belief that meaningful exposure and experiences on local farms and ranches raises awareness and appreciation, and leads to choices that support and increase food system capacity. The result of these choices will be resilient local food systems, healthier communities, and a vibrant future for local agriculture.

Funding support is provided by the Chaffee County Community Foundation Food Access Cohort program and the Chaffee Common Ground fund.