By Nancy Layne | Photos by Stanley Sigalov

There is a desert in the heart of north Denver. A food desert to be more exact—an area without access to fresh produce. GreenLeaf hopes to change this.

GreenLeaf empowers communities through food justice by growing fresh produce while at the same time fostering youth leadership. Currently there are no grocery stores in north Denver with the exception of a Safeway at the edge of Five Points. Nationally, this is a common problem in urban areas. “Across the country there are 23.5 million people without access to healthy produce. This is seen a lot in low-income communities,” said Cody Meinhardt, executive director of GreenLeaf.

By Sarah Ford | Art by Book Williams, Jr.

The lights of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless are long dark when the two men meet outside its doors, silhouetted by the dim streetlights of Broadway. They wear light coats against the brisk night, each carrying a bulging backpack and a clipboard under his arm. Although it’s 8 p.m. on a late January night, their breath does not mist as they laugh, standing close together in a companionship built by ten years of partnership. 

Interview by Sarah Harvey | Photos by Giles Clasen

Marcus Hyde and Kristen Brunelli began building their tiny home last March. What started out as a personal project for Hyde and Brunelli is gaining momentum and turning into a movement. Over the past year, a diverse group of organizations and individuals ranging from Mesa Middle School in Castle Rock to Architecture for Humanity have taken an interest in the idea of tiny homes as a solution to the shortage of affordable housing in the Denver area.

By Robert Lee Payne, Denver VOICE vendor

Panhandlers and sign flyers are everywhere, standing between buildings and standing on street corners here in Denver. Circumstances in life such as divorce, the loss of a job, and the loss of your home can cause people to go to drastic measures to survive.

By Patrick Balerio, Denver VOICE vendor

I did not know him, but I didn’t have to know him. One would think that suicide is incomprehensible, and most people would state that that goes without saying. Then there are the untold numbers of people who seriously ponder the very act of taking their lives…which raises the question of what would compel one to act in such a morbid, deleterious manner?

This month street papers around the world are celebrating our vendors. Many are holding Big Sell events, during which they’ll ask local politicians and celebrities to sell their publications for an hour. Follow along with the international action on Twitter (#VendorWeek). 

The Denver VOICE will hold our own version of the Big Sell on Feb. 4. During the event, VOICE staff, board members, and community supporters will team up with vendors for an hour on the 16th Street Mall, learning more about the hard work they do every day.  

It’s not an easy job, selling the VOICE. For every sale that vendors make they also get plenty of rejections, yet they take these in stride with grace and dignity. The vendors are a continuous source of inspiration to those of us working behind the scenes to put the paper together. 

By Lynn Farquhar  |  Photo by Jesse Borrell

The first time I met Rodney Woolfolk was at the Rise & Thrive fundraising breakfast for the Denver VOICE last fall. 

I met up with him for an interview while he was selling the paper. It was evident that his easy smile and respectful approach were winning people over quickly, and very quickly he was out of papers. Once we had a chance to really talk, he attributed his stick-to-it-ivity to the guidance of his parents who raised a large family while holding down jobs. He grew up with seven brothers and two sisters, and sorely misses his oldest brother who passed away recently. A Denver native, Rodney was born in 1964, attended Park Hill Elementary School, and graduated from George Washington High School in 1982.

More Resources for Coloradans in Crisis
Story and Photo by Matthew Van Deventer

Peer specialist Terri Veliz.After launching last year, Colorado’s first ever statewide mental health crisis hotline is fully operational and entering the last phase of its program rollout.  

The Colorado Crisis Support Line, 844-493-TALK (8255), is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with both peer specialists and professional clinicians standing by, ready to talk, coach, follow-up, and provide referrals to all in need and for whatever they need. 

The hotline is a big part of the commitment made in 2013 when Senate Bill 266 was passed outlining how $20 million dollars would be spent to improve Colorado’s mental health crisis response system.

Essay and photos by Giles Clasen

The Denver Urban Arts Fund seeks to minimize graffiti by funding large murals.

I first became aware of the artistic value of street art when I was working with homeless teens 10 years ago. I wasn’t naturally skilled at working with kids, but I was curious and wanted to find a way to relate to them.

Several of my young friends carried markers and “tagged” street signs, light posts, and buildings. Some parents thought of this as vandalism, and they wanted me to help them address it. I began doing a lot of research and started seeing the artistic value of the work street artists accomplished around the world.

I went to the kids I served and showed them what some street artists were making. The kids were inspired, and wanted to move from writing their initials in a stylized manner to broader urban art. 

By Lynn Farquhar

When my copy of Madison Smartt Bell’s haunting short story collection, Zig Zag Wanderer, arrived in the mail, it was marked FREE just as I was told it would be. At the time, Zig Zag was the latest of nine books published by Concord Free Press in West Concord, Mass. I’d gone to the CFP website, curious to see how this publishing phenomenon dreamed up by author Stona Fitch actually worked.  

It’s like this: writers donate a book for a print run of between 2,500–3,000 copies. Readers can request whatever book is on offer at the time on the press’s website, concordfreepress.com, up until that print run’s copies have run out. Readers agree to pass along the book rather than keep it, and to “pay it forward” in some manner. 

BY TAYLER SEARCY, PHOTO BY JESSE BORRELL

By Sarah Harvey, Editor

You may notice we’ve given ourselves a little makeover for the New Year. Vendors loved the cover redesign last summer that gave us more space to feature a photo. We’ve kept the same basic design, but tweaked it a bit to give us more room to use photos on the front page. We’ve also reorganized the page you’re looking at now, giving a little more space for readers to get to know the 30 or so people who make it possible to put together this publication every month. A great deal of hope goes into these pages. I wanted to share a few of our hopes for the New Year with our readers (in the masthead to the right).

Nothing embodies hope more than the Homeless World Cup. The wire service we subscribe to recently offered a profile on one of the 2014 Homeless World Cup athletes, which we printed on page eight. If you need a dose of hope and happiness, you’ll find it in the uplifting photos that accompany the article.

BY ABBY TEMPLETON-GREENE AND NACHE GREENE PHOTOS BY MIKE BOHNER ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SARAH HARVEY

One year after retail marijuana dispensaries first opened their doors, Coloradans are still wondering how the change will affect our state economy and culture. 

As other states begin to contemplate similar laws, Coloradans are already in knee deep. Many of us have heard the reports of weed friendly hotels opening up (the Bud and Breakfast on 14th and Race, the Cliff House in Morrison, to name a couple) as well as companies like Colorado Cannabis Tours that offer weed tours of dispensaries and marijuana businesses. Perhaps you have also heard that last year Priceline.com listed Denver third for most popular spring break destinations, trailing only Las Vegas and New Orleans. But what does this really mean for the people who live here?

BY ROBERT LEE PAYNE, VOICE VENDOR

I wanted to first thank everyone who supports the Denver VOICE. For those of you who are reading my story, I hope you will be able to see the power of the paper to really impact the lives of the vendors who, for the most part, would not have the ability to work elsewhere. 

When I first came to Denver, I was nervous yet excited because it was a new city with new experiences. I didn’t hide my sexuality, knowing I had already accepted it for myself. I kept an open mind about coming out to other homeless people as well as the staff at the shelters. I worried more about my partner’s safety knowing that he is an at-risk individual due to medical problems. He has Asperger’s, as well as a physical disability from a bus accident.

My partner and I slept at his friend’s apartment at the beginning for a couple of weeks, then at another friend’s a couple of nights. We also stayed in a basement where there was a small room in a property owned by one of our friends in the Capitol Hill area. Also, we stayed in a hotel for about a month until we ran out of money, which forced us into shelters. I always made sure my partner got into the disabled line due to his medical problems. At times we would sleep on loading docks of businesses in the alley or sit on benches all night on the mall when we didn’t make it into the shelter.