Wednesday, November 25, 2020

NM Prioritizes CARES Act Resource to Address Hunger


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Yesterday during the Special Session, the House and Senate supported critical resources for New Mexicans.  “This $300 million relief package will help families, communities, and businesses across the state—and the inclusion of $5 million in funding for food banks will help to provide meals to thousands of families struggling to put food on the table,” said Representative Stansbury. “We are so incredibly grateful for the work the food banks, pantries, shelters, and meal programs across the state do to help feed New Mexicans. And we are especially thankful this relief is coming in time for the holidays.”

Mag Strittmatter, President and CEO of Roadrunner Foodbank reacted to the Special Session saying, “This Special Session was extremely significant for Roadrunner Food Bank and our four partner food banks. We will all be able to acquire the many millions of meals needed to help the growing number of food insecure neighbors in the state, while in the throes of this pandemic. We are so grateful to all who helped make this possible!”

“On behalf of the five New Mexico food banks, I thank our legislators for acknowledging the increased need for emergency food assistance by approving $5 million for food bank services,” said Sherry Hooper, executive director of The Food Depot and President of the New Mexico Food Banks Association. “During the special session, legislators demonstrated their concern for hungry New Mexicans and their commitment to ending hunger in our state during this pandemic.”

"The fact that this special assistance received such broad bipartisan support is a sign that New Mexicans are working together to address the immediate hunger needs of the people in our state," said Carlos Navarro, convener of the Interfaith Hunger Coalition.

Representative Ferrary from Las Cruces, a long-time advocate for addressing food insecurity described her own reaction, “I too am so thrilled and relieved to know NM really does care about making sure we can reach every child, family and senior through the extensive distribution and outreach that the Foodbanks and food pantries have set up across the State! We need to continue this support as well as other policy recommendations identified by the Food, Hunger, Water and Agriculture Policy Group.”

New Mexico First invites all interested stakeholders to participate in the Food, Hunger, Water, and Agriculture Policy Workgroup. To learn more and find minutes from previous meetings, please follow this link. The Teams tab has information about meeting days/times. 
  

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