The Community Pantry

“Combating hunger with local livestock.”

Over the past two years, we have heard many stories from struggling families and livestock producers. Their stories highlight some challenges faced by New Mexico’s disadvantaged families; the dream of affording to feed themselves while holding onto their way of life. Behind every story is a dream, and behind this dream is a sense of hope and belief that reducing hunger in New Mexico is possible. An idea that here, in America, anything is possible with compassion, generosity, and determination. This fall & winter 2022/23 GoFundMe fundraising campaign aims to provide The Community Pantry in Gallup, NM with approximately 30,000 healthy meat servings sourced from local New Mexican ranches and small farms.

Food insecurity is a daily occurrence for many in our neighboring communities. New Mexico ranks highest in our country for child hunger. One out of three New Mexican children is in danger of going hungry. The residents of McKinley and Cibola Counties, including parts of the Navajo Nation and the Zuni Pueblo, are number one in New Mexico for this statistic and the most economically stressed. These facts make it even harder for them to obtain the much-needed proteins to ensure a healthy diet for their children. Every week, 70,000 New Mexicans seek food assistance. Between 30% and 40% of household members seeking food assistance are children under 18, while 21% are senior citizens.

The Wholehearted Food Fund and The Community Pantry began our alliance at the peak of the worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic to combat regional food insecurity. The mission became assisting New Mexico ranchers facing an uncertain future of livelihood due to unpredictable environmental conditions and unfair business practices of meat processing companies.

Wholehearted Food Fund needs your donation for holiday meals!

We are thankful $20,000 is pledged to drive the 2022/23 GoFundMe challenge fundraiser campaign’s goal of $60,000. Yes, we all feel the weight of these troubled times, but please remember you can make a difference in battling hunger! Please help us help those less fortunate. We are one-third of the way to matching the funds needed to meet our goal, and every dollar helps!

Since 2019, our collaborative action has raised approximately $150,000, providing over 65,000 USDA-inspected, locally grass-fed meat servings to The Community Pantry. We are incredibly honored and grateful that the Wholehearted Food Fund was chosen by the National Institute of Food & Agriculture Project Planning committee as a 2022 USDA Community Food Program award recipient. This competitive award endorses our aim of establishing a sustainable and viable food distribution channel, beginning with local livestock producers and ending with feeding hungry, low-income families.

Your tax-deductible donation will provide food assistance to underserved New Mexicans and essential income to small local farms and ranches, fortifying rural economic stability.

Please donate now to ensure that residents of impoverished New Mexican communities and tribal nations receive locally raised meat protein in their daily diet throughout this holiday season.

Wholeheartedly,

Our latest campaign page will be available Monday, November 28th 2022. Check back here for the link!

You've probably never wondered if there was a chance you could run out of food or how to feed your family healthy meals on a very limited budget. Still, for many residents and members of tribal nations across New Mexico, these questions are a reality. Many families struggle with food insecurity daily. New Mexico ranks highest in the nation for rates of child hunger. McKinley County is number one in the state of New Mexico for child hunger and the most economically stressed, making it even harder for them to obtain the much-needed proteins in order to ensure a healthy diet for the children. One out of three children is in danger of going hungry.

 

 

 

The mission of the Wholehearted Food Fund is to provide local meat protein sources to The Community Pantry in Gallup, New Mexico while assisting financially strapped local ranchers that are suffering through 2021's epic drought.

Donations provide services for donors to purchase animals, fund USDA inspected processing, packaging, and provide delivery to The Community Pantry in Gallup, NM, a 501c3 non-profit organization. A single donation will help supply The Community Pantry with valuable animal protein, aid local farmers, ranchers by ensuring they have a market for their products, and support rural businesses as we buy locally sourced products.

 

 

 

Northwest New Mexico had one of the highest Coronavirus infection rates in our country. The residents of McKinley and Cibola counties have been hit hard, which include parts of the Navajo Nation, and also the people of the Zuni Pueblo. Gallup and Grants, two of the largest border towns to both the Navajo and the Zuni reservation lands, are at a crisis point. People in the McKinley and Cibola counties are strong, but this is overwhelming them.

 

At the same time, the state shutdown and current restrictions on capacity mean that restaurants across the state are not ordering or are ordering a fraction of their previous meat orders. Combined with the nationwide fallout from the closures of major processing plants, livestock prices are below the costs to ranchers to raise the animals. Many ranchers are forced to resort to culling their herds. By providing a fair price for their livestock, and utilizing the independent USDA-inspected facilities in our state, we can help to ensure the survival of New Mexico’s local food supply chain.

 

The Wholehearted Food Fund was started in July of 2020 by Talus Wind Heritage Meats owner Tim Willms. As a result of the Pandemic and the partial shutdown of the large corporate meat processors, ranchers had nowhere to take their animals. The Fund started as a charity to provide a way for ranchers to sell their animals while donating food to those in need. During the Pandemic retail meat prices had increased by over 30%. The Fund has provided over 65,000 meal portions of meat to the Gallup Pantry and raised over $150,000.

 

Please help us in getting meat to the people of McKinley and Cibola counties, which include residents of both the Navajo Nation and the Zuni Pueblo. The Wholehearted Food Fund has set an overall goal of $250,000 to bring meat to hungry residents of these border towns and the neighboring Native American tribes.

 

The Fund is administered through The Community Pantry, a nonprofit, which has the skills and the means to get the food safely to the neediest families.