New Mexico Joins Other States and Launches No Kid Hungry Campaign
Posted by Ariane Holm on Friday, February 25, 2011
Four years ago, the state of New Mexico got some abysmal news: they had just been ranked No.1 in the nation for food insecurity by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fast forward four years: while there is still progress to be made, the state has moved up in the rankings to No. 12 due in large part to strategic partnerships with more than 80 organizations and individuals from the private and public sector that make up the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger.
Founded in 2007 after learning of the state’s food insecurity ranking, the Collaboration put together a three-year plan that would involve a broad range of players—elected officials, government agencies, business leaders, educators, child advocates, community leaders—in the fight against hunger, particularly among New Mexico children.
Nearly one in five children in the state still faces hunger, despite the presence of federal food and nutrition programs, such as the school breakfast, school lunch and summer meals programs, which provide low-income children with nutritious meals so they can focus in school and thrive academically. But in 2009, nearly 40 percent of low-income New Mexico children did not participate in the school breakfast program and less than 35 percent participated in the summer meals program. Clearly, if New Mexico is to continue to improve its ranking, we need to close the gap between availability of programs and participation.
That’s why today, we are pleased to announce that we are partnering with the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger to launch the New Mexico No Kid Hungry® Campaign. Part of the national No Kid Hungry Campaign to end hunger in the U.S. by 2015, we will work hand in hand with the Collaboration to connect families to available publicly- and privately-funded nutrition programs. In the first year, the campaign goals are to provide school breakfast to an additional 15,000 students (15 % increase) and provide summer meals to an additional 1,778 students (increase of 3%), with emphasis on rural areas.
We will do this by improving access to school food and nutrition programs, strengthening the community infrastructure for connecting children to nutritious meals and improving families’ knowledge about available programs and healthy food choices.
We look forward to working with the Collaboration to end childhood hunger in New Mexico by 2015 to make sure that no child grows up hungry. To learn more about our newest state partnership, go to www.NoKidHungry.org/NewMexico and take the pledge to end childhood hunger in New Mexico.
February 25, 2011 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: hunger, New Mexico, No Kid Hungry, state partnerships
Comments
1 reader comment so far.
Hi Ariane, I'm doing some research on food insecurity in NM and was wondering what the source is for the pdf you link to in this blog post. It is a chart of how states rank in food insecurity. I'd love to get the source. Thanks. Katie
Posted by Katie on June 29, 2011
Post a comment
All fields are required (your e-mail address will not be displayed)