SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 10

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Nancy Rodriguez

A JOINT MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE KITCHEN ANGELS NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION'S TWENTY YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE OF SANTA FE AND NORTHERN NEW MEXICO; DECLARING FEBRUARY 1, 2013 AS "KITCHEN ANGELS DAY" IN THE LEGISLATURE.

     WHEREAS, between 2008 and 2010, fifteen percent of New Mexico households experienced low food security, and six percent experienced food shortage because of lack of resources; and 

     WHEREAS, between 2008 and 2010, the percentage of insured and uninsured adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four who, because of poverty, postponed or did without needed medical treatments increased; and

     WHEREAS, postponing or forgoing needed medical treatments can cause serious illness, medical complications and longer, more frequent and costlier hospital stays; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels, a Santa Fe-based nonprofit agency, was founded in June 1992 to respond to the lack of services for the homebound, chronically ill; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels reduces the impact of poverty on its clients' access to good nutrition and medical treatments; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels provides nutritious meals at no cost to fragile, homebound individuals throughout Santa Fe and northern New Mexico who have chronic or terminal illness; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels' clients cannot consistently prepare meals for themselves because their illnesses limit their abilities to shop and cook; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels' clients do not have family members on whom they can rely to provide for their nutritional needs; and  

     WHEREAS, ninety-eight percent of Kitchen Angels' clients live on less than two hundred fifteen dollars ($215) each week; and 

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels improves the quality of its clients' lives by ensuring that the homebound, chronically ill receive consistent nutrition, nutritional consultation and a daily opportunity to interact with a caring person; and

     WHEREAS, nearly all of Kitchen Angels' clients report that because their nutritional needs are addressed, they are able to afford their medications or avoid placement in a nursing home, or both; and

     WHEREAS, since its founding, Kitchen Angels has prepared and delivered seven hundred fifty thousand meals; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels regularly partners with other health and social service agencies to end hunger in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels has relied on more than three thousand five hundred volunteers to prepare and deliver meals, which are offered each weekday, including holidays; and

     WHEREAS, Kitchen Angels is the only agency in northern New Mexico that provides its type of services to individuals who are less than the age of sixty; and

     WHEREAS, the type of services that Kitchen Angels offers could be offered in every community in New Mexico;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that Kitchen Angels be commended for its twenty years of outstanding contributions to the health and well-being of some of the most fragile and vulnerable people of Santa Fe and northern New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that February 1, 2013 be declared "Kitchen Angels Day" in the legislature; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the Kitchen Angels nonprofit organization.

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