Study: Chama Valley Students Experience High Food Insecurity Rates

Shortly after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Mexico Foundation organized pilot programs addressing the needs of far-flung (“frontier”) communities in the state. 

One working group, in partnership with the Chama Valley Independent Schools (CVIS), investigated food insecurity in student households in Northern Rio Arriba County. The study emerged as a response to area community leaders expressing concern about hunger in households with children. 

The study demonstrated that often county wide data on food insecurity obscures the real conditions in sub-county frontier areas. For example, food insecurity in the CVIS households studied was three times the food security data reported about Rio Arriba County. 

Here are some snippets from the study

• Northern Rio Arriba Area(NORA) is a FrontierArea*at the very northern end of Rio Arriba County. The Chama Valley Independent School(CVIS) District serves most communities within NORA.
• 111 randomly selected households, representing 209 students were queried about food security between mid-2019 and mid-2020.
• Students in the sampled households represent 54% of the total number of students enrolled in the 2019-2020 CVIS school year. 
• Of these 209 students a total of 62 students (over 29%)resided in households experiencing Severe and Serious food hardships.
•  The Covid 19 Pandemic further weakened an already fragile economy in Northern Rio Arriba County. UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research” projected it would be sometime in 2023 or 2024 when employment levels approach pre-pandemic figures. 
• As economic recovery reaches Frontier rural areas later than the rest of the state, this crisis in food insecurity in families with school age children may persist into 2025-26.

 Here is the full study