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Legislature 2009: Briefing Sheets
Post Date: January 19, 2009
The NM Food and Agriculture Policy Council has identified three priorities for the 2009 State Legislature which begins on January 20th. These priorities are:
- New Mexico Grown Produce in School Lunches: requests $3.3 million to the Dept of Agriculture to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables for school lunches, New Mexico grown when available. The requested funding would allow school food service buyers to provide two additional servings of fresh fruits/vegetables to the 180,000 NM schoolchildren that currently participate in school lunches, most of whom come from low-income families. The program would not only help children to develop lifelong healthy eating habits, but also would provide much needed revenue to farmers and rural communities. For each dollar spent buying food directly from farmers, at least $1.80 recirculates in the local economy.
- Access to Healthy Foods Act: requests $200,000 for pilot projects to develop storage, refrigeration and distribution infrastructure needed to increase access to healthy foods in rural and underserved communities. More than one third of NM’s counties have low or very low food access (meaning nearly everyone has to travel more that 10 miles to the nearest grocery store). This bill would help to improve food access and provide economic development opportunities in the communities that need it most.
- A proposal to change the anti-donation clause to allow for economic development assistance to be provided to small and medium-sized food retail outlets.
Further information on the first two priorities is included in our briefing sheets. Click on the title to download:
Briefing Sheet–NM Grown Produce in School Meals
Briefing Sheet: Access to Healthy Foods
For more information on these and other Policy Council priorities during the legislative session, please email us.
If you are interested in helping to advocate for these bills, take a look at Farm to Table’s Farm to Table’s Action Guide, Legislature 2009.
Topics: Policy Updates, Take Action |