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After wrapping up the 2022-23 school year in June, the AFSC New Mexico's Farm to School project is transitioning. Since 2015, AFSC NM has worked with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, multiple school districts, and charter schools to direct state money to schools to purchase locally grown food. Watch this video to learn more.
After demonstrating success with a Farm to School project in Albuquerque, AFSC NM helped pass legislation in 2015 that provided funds to schools across the state which wanted to buy fresh, healthy, culturally appropriate food grown by fellow New Mexicans.
In these past eight years, over 30,000 students from 70 schools in six counties got to eat fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables grown by their neighbors. More than $188,000 was spent on produce grown by New Mexican farmers, often from the very community that the school serves.
Other benefits are harder to quantify. The nutritional benefit to kids is complemented by the ecological benefit of reduced carbon inputs; eating locally is better for the planet, too.
Farmers trained by AFSC and producer coops organized by AFSC were among those who were able to build relationships with school purchasers and begin to make sales. Having consistent and multi-season institutional markets helps the viability of their farms.
AFSC's decision to transition away from the project does not mean the work of developing farm-to-Institution capacity stops. A broader coalition of supporters has emerged. Recently a slate of new food and hunger legislation was passed in New Mexico with far more robust financial and administrative support available to both schools and farmers.
AFSC New Mexico staff are working on two new healthy food campaigns (one on cucumbers, the other on sweet potatoes) connecting farmers and preschoolers. Stay tuned for more!
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