The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service announced June 9 that a cooperative agreement was signed with New Mexico under the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA).
According to a news release from the USDA, the new agreement will provide funding for the “Nourish New Mexico” project to aid underserved communities in New Mexico.
“USDA is excited to partner with New Mexico to promote economic opportunities for farmers and producers and to increase access to locally sourced, fresh, healthy, and nutritious food in underserved communities,” said Jenny Lester Moffitt, according to the release. “The Local Food Purchase Cooperative Agreement Program will improve food and agricultural supply-chain resiliency and increase local food consumption around the country.”
The release states that the program will purchase its food products from local producers and in “agricultural industries that are historically underrepresented in the state’s locally sourced food assistance programs.”
“Anytime we can work together to simultaneously address food insecurity and support our local producers is a great opportunity for our state,” said New Mexico Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte, according to the release. “We look forward to the ‘Nourish New Mexico’ program benefiting the people of New Mexico by providing fresh, healthy food, while at the same time, helping to strengthen our local economy.”
The program’s food procurement and distribution will take place through the Mobile Food Pantry Program, Farm to Food Pantry Program and the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, according to the release.
The release says there are at least 3,375 New Mexicans and 589 socially underserved producers in all regions of the state that experience food insecurity and will benefit from the program.
State officials say New Mexico is working on sustainability of project outcomes in the long run, and is hyper-focused on value chain capacity building, procurement and distribution partner training and securing state funding for the duration of the project.
