Wholehearted Food Fund (see our new campaign!)
Tax deductible
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.
Donations will be combined to maximize the impact, and feed as many families as possible. Donate now to the Wholehearted Food Fund. The future of many families in the Navajo Nation and many others are depending on you. And please, share this page with your family and friends. Donations are tax-deductible.
If you would like to donate via check, please send them to the Wholehearted Food Fund c/o The Community Pantry at PO BOX 520, Gallup, NM 87301.
Organizer
Timothy Willms
Organizer
Gallup, NM
The Community Pantry
Beneficiary