Home Feeds Nevada aims to address local food insecurity.
Although Nevada was one of 16 states in 2016 to experience a drop in food insecurity, one in eight Nevadans remained food insecure during the 2016-2018 period, according to a United States Department of Agriculture study.
How does food insecurity differ from hunger? According to the USDA, hunger is an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity. Food insecurity refers to a lack of or limited access to nutritionally adequate foods, preventing a household’s members from leading active and healthy lives.
Continuous food insecurity can create a cycle of hunger from which it’s hard to get out. Financial strain or lack of consistent income leads to missed meals and poor nutrition and development, which can have damaging effects on mental and physical well-being. Over time, these can potentially lead to chronic disease and high medical costs, decreasing one’s employability and income, perpetuating their inability to purchase food, healthy or not, which results in poor nutrition and development … and the cycle continues.
The Home Feeds Nevada Agriculture Food Purchase Program, currently funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, is intended to increase access to nutritious food in The Silver State. Created in 2021 with the passage of SB-370, Home Feeds Nevada allows producers to sell their grown or processed products for distribution through Nevada’s regional food banks — specifically, Food Bank of Northern Nevada in Sparks and Three Square in Las Vegas.
How It Works
Chris Gleim, the commodities and procurement programs supervisor of Food Bank of Northern Nevada, says that “130 pantries, residential sites, tribes, and congregate feeding locations … move food directly from [the food bank] to clients. This is for Reno, Sparks, and all of Northern Nevada, and we filter food through programs that are facilitated by the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, such as our Mobile Harvest and Senior Nutrition and Wellness programs.”
Patricia Hoppe, Division of Food and Nutrition administrator with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, claims that “as of June 22, 2023, nearly $394,000 was used to purchase more than 75,500 pounds of food from 12 local producers to distribute through the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.”
Hoppe adds, “Not only does this program help connect hungry and food-insecure community members to food, but it also helps farmers and food producers generate income through an additional reliable revenue stream.”
One such producer is The Radish Hotel, a micro-farm in Sparks owned by husband-and-wife team Crystal and Carlos León. The couple sells vegetables, eggs, and other products such as granola to the public. The Leóns have participated in HFN since February, and it now accounts for 20 percent of their revenue.
“HFN has benefited us in so many ways,” Crystal says. “One, just by broadening our access to the community. Aside from produce, we deliver our granola to the food bank, and in order to do that we had to obtain a commercial kitchen space. This step has made it possible for us to branch out into many more markets than would have been possible under the cottage license under which we were originally operating.”
Other producers include Ponderosa Meat & Provision Co. and Al Bee’s Pure Nevada Honey Co. in Reno, Nevada Brining Co. in Sparks, First Fruits Sustainable Farms in Fallon, and Custom Gardens Organic Farm in Silver Springs.
Programs such as Home Feeds Nevada are crucial in strengthening access to local food and shrinking the hunger gap. If you’d like to learn more about food insecurity and helping to feed the hungry in your area, reach out to your local food bank.
RESOURCES
Home Feeds Nevada Agri.nv.gov/hfn
Food Bank of Northern Nevada Fbnn.org
