2024 Food & Farms Day Awards
Be sure to click on the video links to see our short videos of the Awardees. Click here for a compilation of all of the videos.
Good Food for New Mexico Award - Celebrating Farmers' Markets
Aztec Farmers Market
Aztec, NM
The Aztec Farmers’ Market highlights local agriculture by providing a welcoming place where fresh, local, healthy, tasty farm products, and other handmade goods are accessible and affordable to all people in their community. Farmers and vendors within a 100 mile radius of Aztec, NM are welcome to sell at the market every Wednesday from July through October. They work hard to ensure that each important part of the market—farmers and vendors, customers, staff and volunteers feel valued, respected, and appreciated. They provide a consistent gathering space for the community to interact directly with farmers, their food, and with each other.
Growing the Future Award - for New or Young Farmers and Ranchers
Donne Gonzales - Chicoyole Farm
NM Acequia Association Los Sembradores Farmer Training Program
Chamisal, NM
Donne Gonzales works alongside fellow mentor Edward Gonzales to guide young farmers to live sustainably and gain querencia, on the land that her family has called home for many generations. Together, they adapt, learn, teach, and spend time learning about the land, plants, bugs, themselves, and community.
Donne Gonzales is a young, educated farmer, whose work is to create sustainability in northern New Mexico by using land, acequias, and querencia. Growing food is important, but first we must grow farmers!
Los Sembradores Farmer Training program just graduated its 7th cohort of apprentices. The program teaches a thirteen-point curriculum that covers farm and business planning, seed saving, soil health, irrigation methods, agricultural and food traditions of northern NM, while also incorporating new technology.
Video
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Youtube
Heart of the Land Award
for Outstanding Leadership in Farming and Ranching
The Cultivating Bernalillo County Grow the Growers Program
for Outstanding Leadership in Farming and Ranching
South Valley, Albuquerque, NM
The Cultivating Bernalillo County Grow-the-Growers Program (GTG) is a comprehensive beginner farmer training and business acceleration initiative designed to attract new and emerging farmers into professional food production through a combination of hands-on-experience and classroom curriculum. The goal of GTG is to strengthen the local economy, keep public lands in agricultural production as a means of stewarding natural resources, and participate in the local food system to improve the health of our county. The program is coordinated by Bernalillo County Open Space at the Gutierrez-Hubbell Open Space in the South Valley in conjunction with Agri-Cultura Network, Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District and Bernalillo County-NMSU Cooperative Extension.
Heart of the Land Award
for Outstanding Leadership in Farming and Ranching
Acoma Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps
for Outstanding Leadership in Farming and Ranching
Acoma Pueblo, NM
The aim of the Acoma Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps is to spur a movement to restore their local food systems through agriculture, seed and traditional knowledge. Based in Acoma, they recruit Acoma youth, ages 17 to 25, in an immersive and holistic approach to revitalizing Acoma food systems. Members learn through practice everything from field design to seed saving. They reclaim knowledge through traditional agriculture farming practices, rematriation, seed, and cultural perspective through their young people. They cultivate a field of 0.6 acreage as well as a 2800 sq. ft. hoop house. They have also created a community seed bank and house 56 local varieties of seed,
available for distribution.
Living Land Award
for Outstanding Leadership in Land Stewardship
Joseluis Ortiz y Muniz
for Outstanding Leadership in Land Stewardship
Dixon, NM
Joseluis Ortiz y Muniz is an Indigenous, land-based, native New Mexican living in the high desert of his maternal village of San Antonio Del Rio Embudo. Together with his family, they tend crops and livestock, and steward his ancestral lands. His roots in traditional agriculture were passed on intergenerationally and he maintains a traditional land and acequia based way of life on land his family has cared for since time immemorial. He has worked with volunteer, grassroots, community-based environmental and economic justice organizations. Working and learning in community were part of a journey of self-transformation and
self-discovery. Today, he is the Community Liaison and a Research Scientist at the Sostenga Farm at Northern New Mexico College, where he works to provide land based agricultural wisdom and demonstrates traditional farming. A proud father rooted in community, Joseluis is a trainer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and anti-racism, and is a very active community member. He is a board member of the Seeds in Common an indigenous seed organization, a board member of the Embudo Valley library, a member of La Cosecha del Norte, “a growing
co-op,” and is the community elected Mayordomo for the Acequia Del Llano
del Rio Embudo.
Sowing Change Award
for Organizations Engaged in Creating
Sustainable Food Systems
Project Feed The Hood
for Organizations Engaged in Creating
Sustainable Food Systems
SE Heights, Albuquerque, NM
Video
Website
Project Feed the Hood Facebook
Southwest Organizing Project Facebook
Golden Chile Awards
The New Mexico Grown Golden Chile Awards, organized by the NM Grown Coalition, provide an opportunity to recognize and celebrate
innovative NM Grown programming taking place at preschools, K-12 schools, and senior centers across the state, and the farmers and
food producers who supply the food.
The awards are given in tiers, each recognizing the level that NM Grown concepts are implemented into a school or senior center’s food service programs. The goal of the program is to encourage innovation and expansion in providing fresh, healthy, New Mexico grown produce
to students and seniors.
The Golden Chile Award Program is managed and organized by the NM Grown Coalition, a network of public institutions, community-based organizations, and individuals working together to strengthen community food systems across New Mexico.
Golden Chile Awardees to be awarded at the 2024 NM Food & Farms Day
Food Producers
The Veggie Shack | Portales & Roosevelt County
Margie Plummer
Desert Verde Farm | Santa Fe
Andrew Neighbour
Frontier Food Hub | Silver City, Grant County, Southwest NM
Ben Rasmussen
Early Care & Education Programs
Christina Kent Early Childhood Center | Albuquerque
Sondra Carpenter
HELPNM Family Resource Center | Deming
Tricia Gutierrez
Future Generations, LLC | Clovis
Ashleigh Tackitt
K-12 Schools
Taos Municipal Schools | Taos, NM
Dr. Mae LaBella
Silver Consolidated Schools | Silver City, NM
Alicia Edwards
Elida Municipal Schools | Elida, NM
Beth Fair
Farmington Municipal Schools | Farmington, NM
Marie E Johnson
Senior Centers
Deming Luna County Commission on Aging, Inc. | Deming, Luna County
Julie Bolton
Lower Valley & Blanco Senior Centers | Lower Valley, Blanco, NM
Michelle Murray
Click here for more information and to apply for next year’s awards.
Golden Chile Awards by Category
Golden Chile (mature and fruitful program)
A Gold Star Academy & Child Development Center in Farmington
Future Generations in Clovis
Elida Municipal Schools
Farmington Municipal Schools
Roswell Independent School District
Santa Fe School District
Lower Valley and Blanco Senior Centers
Blossom (program is reaching maturity)
Bumble Bee Learning Center in Sunland Park
Christina Kent Early Childhood Center in Albuquerque
Christine Duncan Heritage Academy in Albuquerque
Family Resource Center in Deming
Mid-West NMCAP Head Start/Early Head Start in Socorro
My Kiddos Too in Roswell
Serendipity Day School in Albuquerque
Western Heights Learning Center in Albuquerque
Zuni Pueblo Head Start
Albuquerque Public Schools
Dexter Consolidated Schools
Las Cruces Public Schools
Silver Consolidated Schools in Silver City
Las Vegas Senior Center programs
Rio Arriba County Senior Program
Sandoval County Senior Services
Zuni Pueblo Senior Center
Sprout (program is growing strong)
Creative Kids Childcare Center in Española
Isleta Head Start, Early Head Start & Child Care Center
Kingdom Builders Preschool and Daycare in Albuquerque
NMSU Head Start
NMSU School for Young Children
Ramah Navajo Head Start
Bloomfield Schools
Clovis Municipal Schools
Cuba Independent Schools
Taos Municipal Schools
West Las Vegas Schools
Adelante Senior Meals in Albuquerque
Albuquerque Department of Senior Affairs
Catron County Senior Services (Presbyterian Medical Services)
Deming Luna County Commission on Aging
Santo Domingo Pueblo Senior Center
Seed (program has potential)
New Mexico Children First in Sunland Park
Isleta Elementary School in Albuquerque
Ch’ooshgai Community School in Tohatchi
Fort Sumner Municipal Schools
Hobbs Municipal Schools
Food producer awardees (a new award category to make its debut with this year’s awards ceremony)
Anthony Youth Farm in Anthony
Bidii Baby Foods in Gallup
Chispas Farm in Albuquerque
Desert Verde Farm in Santa Fe
Elder’s Greenhouse & Garden in Aztec
Frontier Food Hub in Silver City
Graves Farm & Garden in Roswell
Hacienda Dominguez & Chelenzo Farms in Cerrillos
Institute of American Indian Arts Land-Grants Program in Santa Fe
Montoya Orchard in Española
Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (NAPI) in Farmington
New Mexico Beef in Anton Chico
New Mexico Harvest in Albuquerque
Nichols Ranch & Orchards in La Luz
North Valley Organics in Albuquerque
RJ’s Legacy in Shiprock
San Juan College Harvest Food Hub in Farmington
Santa Fe Community College Greenhouse
Silver Leaf Farms in Corrales
The Veggie Shack in Portales
Twin Rivers Farm in Roswell