Executive Summary

Founded in 2010, La Semilla Food Center works to foster a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the border-adjacent Paso del Norte region, which includes urban and rural, colonia communities in Doña Ana County, NM, and El Paso County, TX. La Semilla posits that true transformative change happens over time and that those most affected by inequities should be central to decision-making processes and the creation of solutions. La Semilla has authored or commissioned multiple regional food systems’ assessments and in response launched frontline and systems-level organizational programs as well as regional collaborative initiatives. Led primarily by Latine women, femmes, and non-binary folks with deep ties to the region, La Semilla operates six programs that center the well-being of the community:

Community Farm. A desert-adapted food production, education, and demonstration farm guided by agroecology and organic principles.

Farm Fresh. Utilizes equity-based criteria to support 25+ small-scale farmers from underrepresented backgrounds providing aggregation, distribution, technical assistance, & training.

Community Education: Promotes ancestral foodways practices with youth, families, older adults, and people suffering or at risk of suffering poor health outcomes who hail from underserved, low-income, immigrant communities through summer camps, intergenerational workshops, and a produce prescription program.

Edible Education: Empowers students and educators in 30 schools to understand how the food system impacts personal, community, and environmental health.

Policy: Informed by on-the-ground conditions and leadership, the policy team advocates for equitable, anti-racist, pro-climate food policies locally, regionally, and nationally.

Storytelling: Supports power-shifting through cultural strategy narrative change, and evaluation.

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