Thursday, June 20, 2019; Silver City, NM: There’s a new face behind the wheel of the Southwest New Mexico (SWNM) Food Hub’s delivery van. Local food activist and aspiring farmer, Kristin Lundgren is tooling around in the Hub’s custom refrigerated van, ferrying produce from regional growers to distribute throughout the area to grow the local food economy.

As the Food Hub’s program assistant, Lundgren logs over 200 miles a week while transporting hundreds of pounds of food. “I’m working to connect with more businesses and local restaurants for markets with the produce the Food Hub transports.” Lundgren picks up produce, sorts and distributes it to larger markets than most local growers could reach alone.

The Southwest New Mexico Food Hub is one of about 236 food hubs operating in the nation, and one of only three located in the state, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food hubs are helpful to smaller, and more remote growers located in the frontier, which is why the program is supported by the National Center of Frontier Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the frontier--the nation’s most remote and isolated regions.

Last year, the SWNM Food Hub saved its participating small growers over 25,000 miles of travel by consolidating transportation costs. With the additional storage space provided by the refrigerated transport van and with Lundgren at the wheel, the Food Hub estimates to expand sales into its existing markets throughout the year and eventually into the Tucson, AZ, and El Paso, TX, markets. 

“Our sales goals are reflective of the needs of our growers whom we support through increasing market access, and our efforts can be self-sustaining, which could happen in as little as 18 months,” says Ben Rasmussen, NCFC program manager of the food hub. 

“I believe creating a healthy food economy creates resilient communities,” said Lundgren of her efforts at the Food Hub.

Lundgren practices what she preaches, as an aspiring small-scale farmer and Grant County Master Gardner. She is also part of the Wild Resilience Collective, a group dedicated to native food production and promotion like collecting native mesquite beans and grinding them into flour as an alternative to wheat flour.  Such value-added products like mesquite flour, and say prickly pear jelly from local cacti, can be marketed and sold to expand the food economy of the region. 

The USDA estimates less than $500,000 of the estimated $9.9 million in annual southwest New Mexico regional retail sales of fruit, vegetables and nuts is supplied by local growers in Carton, Grant, Hidalgo and Luna counties. The SWNM Food Hub works to expand the local portion of these sales and the production of the region, as well.

Besides a bachelor’s degree in sociology from University of Arizona in Tucson, Lundgren also has a permaculture design certificate from Woodbine Ecology Center, located near Sedalia, CO.

Her educational background gives her a unique perspective on the impact of local food on the economy, and society on a larger scale, “The Food Hub is an example of supporting region and local communities to create economic ripples that can spread across the nation.”

Rasmussen was pleased with the addition to the SWNM Food Hub’s staff, “Lundgren will help us better connect regional growers to sell their products and expand food production and sales for our entire frontier region of New Mexico. She has excellent knowledge of local foods and can really connect with our growers.”

For more information on  the SWNM Food Hub contact Ben Rasmussen at (575) 597-0032 or email: brasmussen@swchi.orgor visit the website at http://frontierus.org/.