Research, Reports and Opinion Continued

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• Together We Can: Ending Hunger in New Mexico
A report by the New Mexico Task Force to End Hunger. (Microsoft Word document)

• Bare Bones Budget 
Released July 8, 2003, the Bare Bones Budget study indicates that poverty in New Mexico is double what the Federal Poverty Levels suggest. Based on actual family costs for four different family configurations living in 52 New Mexico communities, the Bare Bones Budget is a new measure of poverty from which policymakers can begin to base criteria for economic development and support services. As a tool, the Bare Bones Budget can highlight community-specific economic factors contributing to local cost of living and measure policy effectiveness at lifting families out of poverty. Over 1,000 monetary amounts are tabulated covering eight expenditure categories, four family types and 52 New Mexico communities. What does it really cost, at a bare minimum, to live in your community?

• Food, Markets and Healthy Communities, a recent report from the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), discusses the importance of food markets in low-income neighborhoods. The report concludes that “a high-quality food market is a critical component to a community’s physical and economic health.” For example, the absence of such markets imposes hardships on residents, since they’re forced to travel greater distances and perhaps pay higher prices for food.  

• State by State Food Stamp Program Access Report
In September 2005 USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) recognized individual states for superior achievements and New Mexico was one of those awardees. FNS has calculated the state-by-state "Program Access Index (PAI)" for calendar year 2004. The PAI measures the extent to which low-income people are participating in the Food Stamp Program.

 
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