Two years ago, in March 2020, Delfine Gabaldon visited a pantry for the first time. He had been fired at the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown and didn’t know how he could make ends meet.
For 32 years, Delfine had worked as a mechanic. “I enjoyed the task so much that I did it almost for free,” he said. The pain of the disease made walking difficult. These days, you may only be standing for 15 minutes directly before the pain is excruciating, and when you lay down, you felt dizzy.
“I spin the wheel every morning when I wake up, depending on whether I’m going to feel nauseous or if my feet are going to bother me all day,” she said. But losing his feet had been a wake-up call. . Delfine described decades of fast food he ate for natural convenience: it was cheap, convenient, and what’s more, a hamburger was what everyone in the store ate for lunch.
Now unemployed, Delfine didn’t know how she would feed herself and her family. Her sister is a nurse and they care for her elderly parents who live nearby in Albuquerque.
Delfine then reached for a pantry and, one morning, stopped in line at the nearby Rio Grande Food Project. “I was embarrassed the first time. I got really scared,” he recalls. another level. “
But since then he has returned each and every week, inspired by the healthy produce and the on-site garden. He calls Wednesday mornings “Merchant Joe’s days,” adding that he couldn’t eat that food even before he left because of a disability. Bologna, ham, cheese, things that are easy to prepare,” Delfine said, describing her longtime shopping list. Never vegetables. But now, for the first time, he is a “customer” of the pantry, eating healthier and managing his illness.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it created an emergency of epic proportions.
But it had its silver lining: other people like Delfine learned to access healthier foods in their daily lives. And this forced food, fitness and agriculture organizations to scramble to rethink how to get food to those who need it, with new collaboration and innovation. that has the potential to combat New Mexico’s fight against food insecurity.
Hunger is in New Mexico
New Mexico has long ranked among the last states for the number of people, especially children, who don’t know where their next meal will come from.
High rates of lack of food confidence are “proxy data” of poverty and unemployment, said Kendal Chavez, food and hunger coordinator for the governor’s office, which links hunger to poverty in one of the country’s poorest states.
And when families have to buy essential staples with limited income, they struggle to access healthier foods that alleviate nutrition-related chronic diseases.
It is less expensive and more effective to eat fast food or packaged food than to buy new food and prepare a meal from scratch. To make ends meet, a user can perform various jobs, especially if they have a family. You may not have time to cook foods with healthier ingredients that are more expensive in the first place.
It’s no surprise, then, that nutrition-related diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure, affect some communities more than others. The effects can be severe. These fitness situations help the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths among low-income communities, Native Americans, and other communities of color, where lack of trust in food is more prevalent.
COVID-19 epidemiology reports from the New Mexico Department of Health show that 72% of other people who died from the disease had at least one underlying condition and an oversized death rate in low-income and colorArray communities.
While those are separate knowledge issues — deaths with underlying conditions, death rates based on race and ethnicity — they’re “absolutely connected,” said Emily Wildau, research and policy analyst at New Mexico Voices for Children.
“Communities of color tend to have higher rates of many chronic diseases, and in the same way that nutrition-related chronic diseases have a disproportionate effect on those communities, they are more likely to face a variety of negative social determinants of overall health. “Cheers,” he explained.
Lack of access to healthy food, higher levels of contaminants, barriers to housing and quality health care, and other facets of poverty can affect a person’s long-term fitness outcomes.
Susan Perry is a consulting psychologist who worked as a diabetes educator in rural New Mexico for 18 years. Teaches others about nutrition and the medical effects of stress, which affects vulnerability to chronic disease.
While medical experts and lawmakers refer to emerging rates of nutrition-related chronic disease as a “crisis,” Perry said the real fitness crisis in the U. S. is a crisis in the U. S. is a crisis. UU. es the lack of preventive care.
“We know that smart nutritional behavior acts as a buffer,” he said. “And if we start with kids when they’re very young, and they bring it home, and their parents have the wisdom and the ability to make those kinds of choices, it makes a big difference. “
Making emergencies healthier
Historically, emergency food aid has prioritized food, period. The nutritional price is secondary to access.
In New Mexico, a circle of family members struggling to get food can seek help from a network of emergency food providers. Five regional food banks get food from their own spousal network: pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, schools, senior centers, where a circle of relatives can line up to pick up a box of groceries. In total, New Mexico’s five food banks get 500 spousal organizations.
Food banks gather pieces that can be stored and distributed without an expiration date. Like fast food, non-perishable cans are stored with gigantic amounts of salt or sugar. Sometimes grocery stores donate leftover baked goods to food banks; Pantries wrap 600-calorie muffins in boxes.
But over the past decade, efforts have been made to change, and partners are clamoring for more products. Some pantries have begun working in gardens. Others presented with diabetes that has moved away from carbohydrates.
Some, like the Rio Grande Food Project, have long addressed the root causes of hunger. For years, the organization has offered its clients a multitude of services in addition to weekly food distribution, such as helping others enroll in rental assistance systems. and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“If other people are going to spend their money on us, we’re going to figure out what makes them hungry in the first place,” said Kathi Cunningham, director of progress for the Rio Grande Food Project.
“There’s definitely a [national] motion that you can’t just be a pantry,” he added. “You have to offer all those other services, in a different way, you’re just putting a band-aid on a big deal. “
Education is a central element. It’s hard for other people to change, said Cunningham, who presented the Rio Grande Food Project lawn as a way to raise awareness about healthy choices, encouraging others to slow down and think more about the nutritional value, even if they still opt for potato chips.
Through 2020, the Rio Grande Food Project distributed groceries to about 3500 more people per month.
Then the pandemic hit and went into crisis mode.
Glimmer of hope
Beginning in March 2020, when the governor ordered all non-essential businesses closed, pantries across the state reported a dramatic increase in need.
At the same time, many of them have faced a demographic reality: most of their volunteers are older.
Gallup’s network pantry distributes food through a variety of spousal agencies, such as churches and senior centers. But when the pandemic hit, two closed and the pantry had to find a way to supply food directly to consumers in those organizations.
Other food banks have reported similar emergencies. The Santa Fe Food Depot reported that of the 74 anti-hunger organizations it joined with, the average age of volunteer staff is 81. Suddenly, with all those older volunteers housed on site, the spousal organizations had no one to work with. The Food Depot rushed to take the rate from distributions.
It was those first months of frantic adaptation that exploited a modest organization in operation. Formed in 2019, the Working Group on Food Policy, Hunger, Water and Agriculture brought together food policies and similar organizations that generally do not work together. Prior to the pandemic, approximately 80 organizations were invited to assemblies per month convened through New Mexico First. But as food organizations sought support, the list expanded dramatically to more than three hundred teams and Americans: food banks and pantries, public fitness clinics, agricultural businesses, cellular foods. Distribution, Political Organizations and State Government: weekly assembly instead of monthly.
“It’s miraculous how other people came here in combination to step in and fill in the gaps before the government’s reaction can begin,” said Sharon Berman, director of civic and political engagement for New Mexico First.
Innovation followed.
For example, for about 10 years, MoGro, a nonprofit cellular grocery store, added products in a boxed subscription model: Local farmers sold their products to MoGro, which then packaged them and delivered them to paying customers.
But when the lockdown made it difficult for their customers, humanitarian organizations contacted MoGro and considered it the authority in the distribution of mobile products.
In one case, Vegan Outreach, a national organization, contacted MoGro for large-scale distribution in tribal communities.
“We bundled and packed food and traveled because we had the capacity,” said Shelby Danilowicz, MoGro’s co-project manager.
Since the pandemic, the MoGro project has changed. ” We’re at this point where we feel like we’re growing and we have a concept of where we need to put our energy, basically into those partnership systems and helping to evolve this broader concept of food as medicine. Danilowicz says.
Some of the most difficult partnerships have emerged between organizations that have remained isolated: hunger relief charities, fitness clinics and agricultural businesses.
In May 2021, Presbyterian Healthcare Services transitioned to universal social desire assessment, with the purpose of creating stronger connections between physical and social care in the community. When a patient comes in for an appointment, they answer questions about food, housing, currency instability, and transportation.
The patient may then be eligible for a “product prescription,” meaning they’ll get a weekly source of completion and vegetables, free of charge, for several months. Presbyterian won a grant during the pandemic to expand the program and partnered with MoGro, which offers completion and vegetables from local farmers to eligible patients at its Santa Fe and Española facilities.
Carrie Thielen, a registered dietitian and Presbyterian Regional Community Health manager, explained that one of the priorities of the fitness formula is combating childhood hunger.
“When young people interact with healthy eating, they give it back to their parents,” she said.
And they are the only health care providers that partner with local producers.
In 2021, the New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association reached out to First Choice Community Health Care about a new program called Fresh Rx that would supply bags of new produce to First Choice clinics for patients to pick up.
The main focus of FreshRx is local agriculture, explained Kirsten Hansen, coordinator of the FreshRx program.
“Array. . . I see the silver lining [of COVID],” Hansen said. During the pandemic, it became more effective for the USDA; at the same time, with outdoor areas offering the only place to meet and shop, farmers’ markets have experienced an advertising boom. As the program grew, they were able to succeed with more partners like First Choice.
“We think we want to do more like an in-network fitness center than just seeing patients and writing prescriptions for chronic conditions,” said Tiffany Stevens, First Choice outreach coordinator.
First Choice also receives bags of produce from the Agri-Cultura Network, a nonprofit that supports farmers.
“Our long-term vision here is for New Mexico to become a sustainable food state,” said Helga Garza, executive director of the Agri-Cultura Network. In this vision, the local farmers’ market grows while offering food to populations that may not be in a different way to access organic products.
This year, building on profits made the pandemic, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham introduced the Food, Farms and Hunger Initiative, recently renamed the Food Initiative, and secured $24. 7 million from the legislature to create and fund a policy that combats hunger worldwide. State.
“The Food Initiative is Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s commitment to building a physically powerful food formula that dramatically reduces hunger and improves equitable access to nutritious and culturally meaningful food,” Chavez said, “while helping farmers, ranchers and food corporations produce more new food for food-insecure New Mexicans.
On August 25, the Rio Grande Food Project held a small party in its garden to launch a fundraising campaign. Ari Herring, the director, explained that the food center was about to expand. The team had expanded its COVID image and now sought to create a “customer’s style choice pantry,” which looks like a grocery store, with food placed in aisles, sorted with nutritional facts and navigable through the basket, rather than the existing style of pre-assembled bag distribution.
“When they do their shopping, it complements the dignity of the total experience,” Cunningham said.
Statewide, this is the next step for agriculture and food programs. For example, FreshRx asks consumers if they need to trade in a box of prepackaged produce or their own produce at a farmers market. Nutrition-related decisions will help patients develop healthy, sustainable eating behavior that aligns with their personal tastes.
Hansen, the coordinator of the FreshRx program, said it’s a selection that needs everyone to have.
When Delfine receives a bag from the Rio Grande Food Project, she goes out of her way not to try the carbohydrate-rich foods she can’t eat; He donates dried spaghetti and canned mashed potatoes to his neighbors, and reserves diabetic-friendly foods. “real” things.
“I don’t do the cooking part. When I get the thing, I eat it whole,” he said, describing what has become his ideal snack: a tomato, cut in half, with a pinch of salt.
Isabel recently graduated from Columbia Journalism School, where she majored in investigative journalism. He has a long-standing interest in the pace of physical exercise and the politics of arts and culture. Prior to journalism school, she earned an MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society from Cambridge University and joined New Mexico In Depth as a Columbia Fellow in 2022.
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