Two Agencies Join to Feed 7,500 Students in New Mexico this Summer

By Amber Williams

One in every four children in New Mexico worries about having enough food. For many, the most vulnerable time is summer when students are without regular school food assistance programs.

This is why the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger started the Intergenerational Summer Food Program (ISFP)

The ISFP provides weekend food bags to children enrolled in various summer programs, such as at schools, community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs and churches. The bags are provided at no charge to the summer programs and contain six nutritious food items for children to take home with them.

The ISFP will be at 58 sites this summer, providing 58,000 weekend food bags to children across the state.  The sites extend from Raton to Carlsbad and Silver City to Bloomfield. There will be 17 sites in Albuquerque. The program will feed 7,500 children during June and July. 

This is the first year that The Collaboration is partnering with The Storehouse on the program.  The Storehouse has worked with The Collaboration to reduce the cost of this year's food for the program, saving over $2.00 per bag.  Plus, starting in the end of May, The Storehouse will help transport the food to the distribution sites across the state while Adelante helps store and deliver the food in Albuquerque. 

The Collaboration also works with Ben E. Keith, Albertson’s, Sunland Peanutbutter, and Gossner Foods to procure the food for the program.  Each weekend food bag contains 7oz shelf stable milk, 7oz of shelf stable juice, 4 oz of peanut butter, 1 sleeve of saltine style crackers, 1 granola/cereal bar, and two 2oz containers of dry cereal.

(The author is media & public relations consultant at The Storehouse.  Article reprinted from organization's newsletter).