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Week of June 9, 2022
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
EnglewoodHerald.net
VOLUME 102 | ISSUE 17
The cost of college is driving students down Tuition has increased 169% between 1980-2019 BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
needs about 172,000 more pounds to meet current demand. And it is unlikely to get that soon. “What we saw in the past has drastically changed,” McPherson said. “I think there’s this perception on the outside that we’re back to normal and we’re not.” Food insecurity is once again on the rise in Arapahoe County and other parts of the metro area. Between January and May of this year, the food bank is expected to have served more than 27,000 people, with some living as far out as Douglas County and Bailey, according to McPherson. That’s a 111% increase from the same time last year when IFCS served about 24,300 people.
For many students attending college or preparing to start that educational journey, the cost weighs heavy. Teenagers and young adults suffer from anxiety and struggle with mental health more than ever before and a lot of it has to do with how they can meet expectations set by society to go to college, graduate and become successful adults. The problem, however, is that the cost of college continues to increase. When comparing today’s costs to generations before, the amount of debt students take on to complete a degree is impacting their lives for decades. Throughout her internship with Colorado Community Media, Bella Terhark, a recently graduated senior at Castle View High School, regularly stressed about the cost of college. She said doing extracurricular activities and working hard to get the best grades was all in the hope of getting scholarships to pay for school. Terhark looked at local schools but wanted to be more adventurous and go to school out of state. After graduating, Terhark said she will be attending a college in Wyoming and majoring in journalism. The stress felt by students is a concern, said Arapahoe Community College Dean of Students Javon Brame. The mental health crisis
SEE INFLATION, P10
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Todd McPherson, director of development for IFCS, prepares food boxes for a morning rush on June 2.
PHOTO BY ROBERT TANN
More money. Less food. Greater demand: Inflation hits metro-area food banks Distributors continue to feed thousands in face of uncertainty BY ROBERT TANN RTANN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Before he’s left the food bank’s parking lot, Zachary Mullins sits in partial shade and eats a handful of fresh strawberries and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from his brown cardboard box. He’s been getting food from Integrated Family Community Services, one of the largest food banks in the Denver metro area, once a week for the past two years. “I rely on this food bank,” said
Mullins, who lost his job and home in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now he lives homeless in Englewood, near where IFCS is based. But the nonprofit is facing a difficult reality as it contends with 40-year-high inflation rates and a bottle-necked supply chain. It means paying more money for less food even as demand rises. A growing need According to Todd McPherson, IFCS’s director of development, the nonprofit distributed over 364,000 pounds of food between January and May of last year. This year, totals are estimated around 406,000 pounds between those same months. But McPherson said the center
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
DEVASTATION TO DELIGHT Artists forge wonderful works from wildfire’s remains P14