End Hunger in New Mexico Summit Around the Corner

The Second Annual End Hunger in New Mexico summit is only a little more than a month away (September 23-24).  If you haven't registered, here is the link. The registration fee is $20, and participants are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to donate to Desert Harvest, which will distributed it to 17 organizations in need of food.

The summit features many interesting workshops, including  Faith In Action: An Introduction to the Interfaith Hunger Coalition, led by Ellen Buelow, a member of the steering committee of the IHC.

Here is a description. "Our interactive workshop introduces participants to the vision and activities of the Interfaith Hunger Coalition focused in three areas; education, advocacy and direct action. Here’s an opportunity for faith communities to collaborate in a common place. Explore how you and your organization can join forces without duplication of services."

Some of our friends and collaborators are also leading thought-provoking and informational workshops, including SNAP and Work Supports (Louise Pocock, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty); How Our Food System is Harming Hungry People (Alicia Edwards, Volunteer Center of Grant County); Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization: Strengthening the Safety Net (Patty Keane, MS, RD, Nutrition Scientist, UNM Prevention Research Center/New Mexico); Community Bulk Buying Program (Janet Page-Reeves, Research Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico); Food Insecurity’s Impact on Education (Patrick Scott and Jeff Berg, APS Title I Homeless Project, Homeless Liaison staff, and Sandra Kemp, Executive Director, APS Food & Nutrition Services); and Reaching Food Neutrality in your Community by Increasing Capacity (Sherry Hooper, Executive Director of the Food Depot, and Julie Anderson, Food Rescue Manager at Roadrunner Food Bank)     See full list of workshops.

Nancy Pope, another member of the steering committee of the Interfaith Hunger Coalition, will be one of the keynote speakers during the luncheon on Wednesday. Sherry Hooper, executive director of The Food Depot in Santa Fe, and Archbishop John Wester of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, will also present remarks at the luncheon.

For more information about the summit, visit the official site.

And here are some tidbits of information in the most recent poster promoting the summit:

DID YOU KNOW?

• NM has the 2nd worst rates of poverty in the country - 1 in 5 people live below the poverty level
• NM has the worst child hunger in the nation - 1 in 3 children do not have enough to eat
• NM seniors are 2nd in the nation regarding food insecurity - last year over 30,000 seniors relied on food banks
• Every day 40,000 New Mexicans seek food assistance - 40% are children
• 67,795,200 - the number of additional meals needed every year to end hunger in NM