Wonderful friends,

Earlier this week Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned she’s heard “NO” so many times that she could eat it for breakfast.
 
Here at Appleseed, we also eat a lot of "NO" for breakfast (sometimes lunch and dinner, maybe even a snack, too). Who doesn’t want to make sure we effectively address the needs of our most at-risk children and families? The list is longer than you would think.
 
Our supporters are often surprised that we get so much pushback on our work. Poverty is the most visible and persistent problem in our state—but change requires shifting resources from one group to another, and this shift usually means someone gives up something for someone else. Agendas in the political world rarely focus on truly lifting families out of poverty because they necessarily involve seismic shifts in power.

So, if you want to know the Appleseed recipe for success it is that we don’t give up. And perhaps just as valuable, everyone we work with knows it.
 
Evidence-Based Policymaking: Six Years of "NO" is Creeping to a "YES"

Since 2015, Appleseed has tried to push the State and agencies to create a tool to engage in evidence-based policymaking as the state has no such tool. We've suggested that they look at data across siloed systems to identify both protective and risk factors for our at-risk families and evaluate program efficacy.
 
For example, New Mexico recently moved to tap the Permanent Fund for early childhood education. Sounds great in theory, but what if we don't know if the interventions are effective or getting to the right people? We risk losing huge amounts of money and doing either no good or actual harm to the very people we are trying to help.
 
We know that the best way to help New Mexico's most vulnerable families is to integrate data about these families across systems and agencies to get a better picture of their risk factors—and then ensure the interventions are implemented in a way that actually helps. The Family Success Lab is our proposal to integrate data across agencies to create a system for evidence-based policymaking.
 
We aren't there yet, but we’re creeping toward a "YES!"
 
Critical Ingredient: Data
 
Appleseed is working in partnership with the Public Education Department and the Department of Health to include quantitative research questions in their data collection that will more accurately measure New Mexico’s housing insecurity crisis. We’re thrilled about this new partnership and look forward to sharing what we uncover.

This is an exciting step forward!

Thank you as always,

Jenny and the board and staff of New Mexico Appleseed

P.S. We know that child poverty—though complex—can be solved. We need more help and most of all we need you. Your contributions make our work happen.
Thank you!
We know you're familiar with Appleseed's work, but might not know the tenacious team working behind the scenes—so, we'd like to introduce you to our amazing Director of Strategy, Daniel Valverde.
Daniel Valverde is responsible for bringing awareness to child hunger issues across the state.

Daniel helps support federal programs, such as school breakfast, school lunch, and after-school meals, and he ensures after-school programs receive free, reimbursable meals and snacks using federal funds. He also works on Appleseed’s McKinney-Vento program, and his work includes supporting school districts around the state with their McKinney-Vento programs, offering technical assistance, and identifying pressing on-the-ground issues that require policy changes.

Daniel was accepted as an Emerson Hunger Fellow with Congressional Hunger Center in Washington D.C., He improved access to SNAP at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Food Security Partnership and then moved on to explore health care providers' role in ending childhood hunger at the Share Our Strength in Washington, D.C. with the Partner Impact and Advocacy team. Most recently, Daniel was a Child Hunger Outreach Specialist with the Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University School of Social Work. Daniel is a native New Mexican and received his bachelor's degree in anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University and his master's degree in cultural anthropology and food studies at New Mexico State University.

Here's a short Q&A with Daniel:

Q: What do you hope for? 
A: Bringing universal free meals to low-income and Native American students across New Mexico and throughout the United States.
 
Q: Where is your happy place? 
A: Anywhere outside. Especially my family's farm in Los Lunas.
 
Q: What’s the most exciting part of your job? 
A: Working one-on-one with school districts to troubleshoot their community's most pressing hunger issues.
 
Q: What’s the most fulfilling part of your job? 
A: Crafting innovative, data-driven solutions that lead to first-in-the-nation policies.
 
Q: What are some of the highlights of working at Appleseed? 
A: Launching Appleseed's 1, 2, 3 Eyes on Me initiative during the pandemic—we've worked with over 30 community partners and coordinated food and healthcare megasites across the state. Another highlight is working to get legislation passed that is then replicated by other states.
 
Q: Three best things about New Mexico? 
A: The people, my family, and exploring the Gila National Forest.


Data. Data. Data. The critical ingredients!

Here's what we've been sharing with one another in the office this month. If you come across something you think we should read (watch or listen) please send it our way!


Which neighborhoods in America offer children the best chance to rise out of poverty?

The Opportunity Atlas answers this question using anonymous data following 20 million Americans from childhood to their mid-30s.


Opportunity Insights is a non-partisan organization located at Harvard University that seeks to translate insights from rigorous, scientific research to policy change by harnessing the power of “big data” using an interdisciplinary approach.

Today, the majority of poor renting families in America spend over half of their income on housing costs, and eviction is transforming their lives. Yet little is known about the prevalence, causes, and consequences of housing insecurity.

The Eviction Lab is a team of researchers, students, and website architects who believe that a stable, affordable home is central to human flourishing and economic mobility. Accordingly, understanding the sudden, traumatic loss of home through eviction is foundational to understanding poverty in America.

Drawing on tens of millions of records, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University has published the first-ever dataset of evictions in America, going back to 2000.


The Institute for Research on Poverty researches the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the United States. They bring together social scientists from across research disciplines such as economics, sociology, social work, and demography. The result is a well-rounded understanding of poverty issues.

Their Poverty Research & Policy podcast features interviews with researchers about poverty, inequality, and policy in the United States. 


KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and a premier source of data on children and families. Each year, the Foundation produces a comprehensive report — the KIDS COUNT Data Book — that assesses child well-being in the United States.

The KIDS COUNT Data Center now features data related to children and families from the federal Household Pulse Survey. The U.S. Census Bureau is collecting this data to measure household experiences during the coronavirus pandemic.