The good news in NM is that organizations and state agencies continue to work together on “food system” solutions. These include:

• Farm to School
  a program of Farm to Table and the NM Dept. of Agriculture has been working to connect NM farmers with schools to increase the use of fresh fruits and vegetables in school meals. To date, six school districts that serve close to half of NM’s schoolchildren, are purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables from NM farmers (close to $500,000 in sales in 2007) when they can afford it. The state has begun to invest in the Farm to School program with an initial commitment of an annual $85,000 to provide close to 6,000 students in 12 schools in Albuquerque with fresh fruits and vegetables twice a week. The NM Food and Agriculture Policy Council along with Farm to Table, the NM School Nutrition Assn. and the Dept. of Agriculture are working with policymakers to increase the investment to more than $4 million so that every child in NM schools benefits. In addition, the organizations advocated for an increase in the federal Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program that will provide a portion of NM schools with additional funds for fresh fruit and vegetable snacks.
  
  
• Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program
  Over the last three years the NM Farmers’ Marketing Assn. and the NM Food and Agriculture Policy Council have advocated for state and federal funding of an annual investment of $150,000 from the state and $337,000 of federal funds, to provide more than 20,000 low-income seniors with $28 in vouchers each to spend at farmers’ markets throughout NM. In an economy where low-income seniors are at risk of skipping meals because they can’t afford to eat, it’s a win-win program.
  
  
• WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program
  similarly provides as many as 26,000 women and children who are nutritionally at-risk with vouchers to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at NM farmers’ markets. This program invests more than $300,000 back into NM’s farming economy.
  
  
• Closing NM’s Food Gap
  A Governor-appointed Task Force, including Farm to Table, the NM Food and Agriculture Policy Council, The NM Grocers Assn., and the Departments of Agriculture, Health, Human Service, Indian Affairs, and Transportation are investigating ways to improve access to healthy foods for rural and underserved urban populations. A set of recommendations and legislation were completed in November 2008.

These innovative programs, NM’s strong public and private sector commitments, and financial investments that have been made are good examples of effective community-based programs that increase individuals’ and communities’ access to healthy food options and benefit NM farming families.

Al Lucero, owner of Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen serves his special tamales

Pam Roy is Co-Director of Farm to Table and the coordinator of the NM Food and Agriculture Policy Council. For more information, call 505-473-1004.