SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 62

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009

INTRODUCED BY

Cynthia Nava

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING PUBLIC SCHOOL FOOD DIRECTORS TO DONATE EXCESS SCHOOL MEALS; REQUESTING STATE AGENCIES AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS TO CONVENE A WORK GROUP TO ADDRESS FOOD REDISTRIBUTION TO HUNGRY AND HOMELESS PEOPLE IN NEW MEXICO.

     WHEREAS, according to the 2005 United States department of agriculture data, one in six New Mexicans does not know where that person's next meal will come from, including one in four children and one in eight senior citizens; and

     WHEREAS, national food insecurity rates are a little over eleven percent, but New Mexico's rate is substantially higher at almost seventeen percent; and

     WHEREAS, the root issues of hunger in New Mexico are attributed to a high poverty rate and the fact that thirty-two of thirty-three counties qualify as "rural" by federal standards; and

     WHEREAS, food costs more in rural areas than in urban areas, and there are fewer food stores in rural areas than urban areas; and

     WHEREAS, a recent food study indicated that the average travel time to the most frequented grocery stores in New Mexico was twenty-nine minutes and that there is only one food store for every four hundred eighty-six square miles in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, Section 41-10-3 NMSA 1978 protects food donors acting in good faith from any civil liability or criminal penalty regarding the condition of the donated food, and Public Law 110-247, the Federal Food Donation Act of 2008, encourages executive agencies and contractors of executive agencies to donate excess, apparently wholesome food to nonprofit organizations to feed food-insecure people in the United States; and

     WHEREAS, an executive agency making donations pursuant to the Federal Food Donation Act of 2008 is exempt from civil and criminal liability to the extent provided under the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act; and

     WHEREAS, there are nonprofit organizations in New Mexico that engage in "food rescue programs" to salvage food from restaurants, repackage it and give it to nursing homes; and

     WHEREAS, a public-private collaboration of over thirty organizations was formed to support the New Mexico plan to end hunger;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public education department be requested to inform all school district and charter school food services directors that they are encouraged to donate excess school meals to public or nonprofit organizations that feed the hungry and the homeless; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a work group consisting of the aging and long-term services department, human services department, department of environment, public education department, higher education department, children, youth and families department and nonprofit organizations that work on issues concerning hunger convene during the 2009 interim to develop a plan for maximizing food redistribution for both public and private entities to hungry and homeless people in New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretaries of public education and aging and long-term services for appropriate distribution.

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