Our vision for connecting diverse communities throughout the Santa Fe region to a reliable supply of healthy and affordable food is rooted in building knowledge of available assistance programs and resources, as well as ensuring that these foods are readily available in local stores, farmers markets, senior centers, hospitals, and schools.

Goal 1: Improve residents’ ability to access fresh, nutritious food.

  • Require public transportation routes to be aligned with food outlets that offer a full range of whole and fresh food options. Potential Partners: Santa Fe Trails, North Central Regional Transit
  • Require City-and County-operated institutions include an increasing amount and variety of local food in their meal service programs to a maximum feasible percentage. Potential Partners: Santa Fe County Community Services Department, City of Santa Fe Community Services, Area Agency on Aging, Santa Fe Public Schools, PED, CYFD
  •  Support provision of infrastructure and programming to improve food access in rural and under-served areas. (Santa Fe County Sustainable Growth Management Plan, 2010, strategy 15.4.1, page 86). Potential Partners: Santa Fe County Growth Management Department
  •  Increase seniors’ awareness of various food assistance programs. Potential Partners: Santa Fe County Community Services Department, New Mexico Income Support Division (ISD), Santa Fe County Office, non-profits, City and County Senior Centers administration and staff

Goal 2: Promote self-reliance, family gardening, and food storage.

  • Conduct education and outreach campaigns which emphasize self-reliance as a cornerstone of sustainability. Potential Partners: Sustainable Santa Fe Commission, City of Santa Fe Environmental Services, Santa Fe City Council, Santa Fe Board of County Commissioners
  • Inspire our community to integrate emergency preparedness into our daily lives through various lifestyle shifts, from smart shopping techniques for storing food reserves to revitalizing food preservation and storage traditions. Potential Partners: Santa Fe County Emergency Management, New Mexico State Extension Service, City of Santa Fe Emergency Management, non-profits
  • Sponsor a “Grow Up Gardening” campaign which highlights creative and fun food production techniques tailored to families, including container and vertical gardening techniques for limited space. Potential Partners: Food for Santa Fe/Feeding Santa Fe, Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, areas nurseries, and food retail outlets that offer seasonal plant starts

Goal 3: Prioritize getting local, fresh food into schools.

  • Support and advocate for universal free school meals, which would make free healthy schools meals the norm for all children, irregardless of family income.
    Potential partners: NM State Legislature, NM’s congressional delegation, the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council, New Mexico School Nutrition Association
  • Continue to support Farm to School educational activities currently taking place within our schools, such as on-site school gardens, food system and farming curriculum, fruit and vegetable tastings, culinary programs, field trips to local farms and venues, farmers in the classroom, and food system entrepreneurship programs. Potential Partners: Santa Fe Public Schools, Santa Fe Farm to School Coordinator, Cooking With Kids, the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy 
  • Work with School Food Service Directors and District Procurement offices to increase the availability of local foods in schools by setting up sustainable systems to purchase foods from local farmers, including standing purchase orders and bid processes that emphasize local purchasing. Potential Partners: School District Procurement Offices, School Food Service Directors, Farm to Table, Cooking with Kids, the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council

Goal 4: Promote existing food assistance programs.

  • Demonstrate and promote creative uses of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—from tips for shopping on a budget to home gardening using seeds and plant starts available for purchase with monthly assistance benefits. Potential Partners: New Mexico ISD Santa Fe County Office, Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, Local Organic Meals on a Budget, Homegrown NM
  • Promote innovative programs aimed at increasing access to fresh, local food, such as the Southside Farmers Market and Santa Fe Farmers Market Double Buck Days which provide SNAP recipients with additional funds to shop at local farmers markets. Encourage clear signage at farmers markets and outreach about the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Programs. Potential Partners: Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, New Mexico ISD Santa Fe County Office, NM Department of Health, Kitchen Angels, non-profits.
  • Organize volunteers to collect leftover crops from local farms to expand the availability of fresh food at area food banks/food pantries. Potential Partners: Food for Santa Fe/Feeding Santa Fe, The Food Depot, area farms, non-profits

Goal 5: Celebrate local food and support regional food economy.

  • Grow the demand for local food by organizing an outreach campaign
    aimed at educating and inspiring residents to buy local. Potential Partners: Santa Fe County Planning-Economic Development, Santa Fe Food Policy Council, Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association, NMDA-Taste the Tradition and Grown with Tradition, area food retail, non-profits, community members, farmers 
  • Develop a locally based approach to address concerns of consumers and producers about the potential impacts of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food consumption and production in the region. Potential Partners: Joint City-County GMO Task Force, Homegrown NM, Santa Fe County Extension, non-profits and initiatives.
  • Implement innovative strategies that support local economic development efforts such as mobile grocery stores and food carts to bring locally produced food into under-served areas of the county. Potential Partners: City of Santa Fe Economic Development, Santa Fe County Economic Development, North Central New Mexico Economic Development District, MoGro Mobile Grocery
  • Work with Santa Fe City and County to develop urban agriculture ordinances. Potential Partners: Santa Fe County Extension, Santa Fe Food Policy Council-Land Use Subcommittee, Gaia Gardens, Homegrown NM, non-profits
  • Maximize the efficiency of existing Community Commercial Kitchens and assess the need for additional facilities in order to enhance the economic potential of local value-added products and traditional foods
    Potential Partners: City of Santa Fe Economic Development, Santa Fe County Economic Development, Santa Fe SCORE, Southside Merchants Association, Santa Fe Business Incubator, Pojoaque Pueblo, non-profits, community members
  • Work with New Mexico regulatory agencies to streamline the process by which local producers and and food processors can become certified for value added products. Potential Partners: City of Santa Fe Economic Development, Santa Fe County Economic Development and Planning Division, New Mexico Environment Department, New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council, Farm to Table