Aug 30, 2011
The New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger officially welcomes Krista Kelley as its new Director. Most recently the Vice President of Development with Adelante Development Center, she offers more than eleven years of management, fundraising, marketing, community and government relations experience, as well as strategic leadership skills and a strong commitment to addressing and implementing hunger initiatives. As a native New Mexican and alumna of the University of New Mexico,Kelley is well prepared to accomplish the mission of the Collaboration to End Hunger and the organization’s commitment to eliminating hunger in New Mexico.
In 2007, when New Mexico was ranked as the most food insecure state in the country, the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger (the Collaboration), a state-wide coalition, was formed with the goal of partners working collectively to reduce food insecurity in New Mexico. Today, the Collaboration includes over 80 partners from public and private sectors, all of whom have played a role in helping to move more than 28,000 New Mexicans out of food insecurity. As of 2011, New Mexico ranks 12th in the nation for highest level of food insecurity according to the USDA.
In the same year the Collaboration was formed, it launched the Intergenerational Summer Food Program (ISFP) to provide summer weekend food bags to children in qualifying neighborhoods throughout New Mexico. The Collaboration works with state agencies to increase the number of sites across the state and receives private funding to pay for weekend food bags. Funding for community gardens is also provided through private sources. The Intergenerational Summer Food Program has grown from serving 3 summer food sites, providing weekend food bags to 550 children in 2007 to serving 70 sites in summer 2011, providing food bags to more than 9,000 children.
In partnership with Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger nonprofit, the Collaboration to End Hunger launched the New Mexico No Kid Hungry Campaign in February 2011, which focuses on ending childhood
hunger in the state by 2015. The New Mexico No Kid Hungry Campaign has helped to increase child access to summer food programming by increasing family awareness of summer food sites near them and providing expansion mini-grants for summer food programs.
“I have had an opportunity to observe the impact that the Collaboration to End Hunger and its partnership with Share Our Strength have made and I look forward to leading the next phase of the Collaboration’s vital efforts in New Mexico,” Kelley said. Over the next year the New Mexico No Kid Hungry Campaign, in partnership with Dairy Max, will be working across Southern New Mexico to provide outreach, mini-grants, and other resources to support schools to
increase student access to school breakfast.
To view the full press release please visit: http://www.endnmhunger.org/nm_collaboration_new_director_press_release_8_23_2011.pdf