After losing her daughter, Colorado mother continues effort to help others with food insecurity

By Ashley Portillo

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — A Colorado mother is helping others facing food insecurity after losing her daughter to a drug overdose nearly five years ago. She’s leading an effort in placing community fridges and food pantries around the Denver area, and just this week, helped open another food pantry at the Arapahoe County Jail.

Lisa Ridenour lost her daughter Giselle, who also went by Gelli, to an accidental overdose in December 2020. Ridenhour said food was Gelli’s love language, which inspired her to begin her mission to help others have access to food.

“She really cared about taking care of other people and she loved to cook for people. She would cook for us on our birthdays,” said Ridenour.

While Ridenour described her daughter as outgoing, courageous and fearless, she also said her daughter was bullied and spent most of her teenage years struggling with addiction with substance abuse.

“I don’t want her death to be for nothing. I want her death to save other lives,” said Ridenour. “So, I heard about community fridges during COVID and it just felt like that was the answer. As I was researching community fridges, I also discovered the connection between food insecurity, hunger and addiction and relapse.”

To carry her on daughter’s legacy, Ridenour is doing what her daughter would’ve done in taking care of others. Gelli’s Community Fridge, or in the most recent case, a pantry, now sits in the lobby of the Arapahoe County Jail right next to a harm reduction kiosk.

“For people that are being released that that may not have resources for food or for a simple snack. They do now,” said Carl Anderson, the Chief Policy Advisor for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. “Upon release, that risk is high for an accidental overdose. With a hungry tummy, it can lead to, ‘Hey, I’m just going to go and get my opioid or my substance.”

“If people leave our facility and they don’t have that basic need of food in their stomach, the likelihood that they return, I think, becomes much higher,” said Sheriff Tyler Brown.

Brown mentioned the jail books in almost 19,000 people a year who are going through a multitude of things like being unhoused, substance use disorder, or mental health challenges. He added, the goal is to reduce recidivism and provide resources to people, so they have what they need when they’re released.

“Food scarcity is huge, especially with our unhoused population and people dealing with mental health issues and substance use disorder, and if we can help them with that one step, we’re going to be better off,” the sheriff said.

Since placing the other fridges and pantries, one location has helped provide 11,000 meals and thousands of pounds of food

“Lisa is powerful,” said Anderson. “She went through a very traumatic event regarding Giselle, and she’s turned that into such a powerful movement here in the Denver metro area. Her family, they just want to give back to the community so we can save lives and that’s my mission too.”

Like the other community fridges and pantries, the pantry at the jail is open 24/7, so people getting released can take as much as they need no matter what time of the day it is.

“My hope is that between providing harm reduction resources and food, when people get released from this facility, we save lives. It’s that simple. My dream for this pantry, is that it gives people hope and dignity and safety to restart their lives and to stay alive while they do it,” said Ridenour.

Ridenour hopes to put as many community friends and pantries as she can around the Denver metro area, “so no one has to make the hard choice of choosing drugs over food,” she said.

One fridge and pantry are located inside Valor on the Fax at 1490 Trenton Street in Denver. The other fridge and pantry are located at Bridge House/Ready to Work in Englewood at 4675 South Windermere Street.

Community members and businesses can also drop food off or provide monetary donations for the effort.

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