KRWG: El Paso food hub & La Mesa, NM mushroom farm offer solutions to food desert problem

Ximena Zamacona, owner of Full Circle Mushrooms, holding a batch of oyster mushrooms. (Photo by Scott Brocato/ KRWG)

At El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, the city’s only food bank, they currently serve 150,000 food insecure people in the city.

The need to improve food equity in a region where many people face limited access to healthy, nutritious food, inspired Patsy Stallworth to open Desert Spoon Food Hub in El Paso eight years ago.

“I had retired from a public relations career in senior lifestyle communities. My daughter said, ‘Mom, I know you’re going to go out and volunteer.’ At that point, we were going out to local organic farms to purchase produce for our family meals. And Adriana’s thought was that we were lucky enough to go purchase organic produce, but did the whole city know? And were the farmers becoming sustainable because people were buying from them? And the answer was no. She said, ‘Let’s buy from these farmers and help them become sustainable, and offer it to the public.’ Hence happened: our Desert Spoon Food Box.”

The organization now has opened a physical store, Spoon Flower Grocery. The store is small but inviting, greeting the customer with displays full of fresh fruits and vegetables, chiles, salsas, frozen food, bread, and more when you walk in the door. Patsy talked about her greatest satisfaction of opening the store.

“The greatest satisfaction of this store is that there is local, organic produce and fruits, healthier option foods in a food desert neighborhood. And more than that is the fact that we’re the lead for Double Up Food Bucks Texas. Double Up Food Bucks is, if you have a SNAP card, and you walk in and you’re gonna pay with food stamps, Double Up Food Bucks offers 50% off on local fresh or frozen organic produce, ANY fresh or frozen.”

Desert Spoon follows these three pillars of food security: availability, access, and utilization. According to Patsy Stallworth, working with local farms is key.

See the full story at KRWG Public Media.