San Felipe Pueblo Mobile Grocery launched by NB3 Foundation

Native News Network Staff in Native Health. Discussion »

SAN FELIPE PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO – The Notah Begay III Foundation, known commonly as NB3, in partnership with San Felipe Pueblo, Mobile Grocery, affectionately called "MoGro", and the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, launched a landmark initiative to increase access to healthy and affordable food for San Felipe Pueblo residents. MoGro, a grocery store on wheels, launched its first day of service within the heart of the San Felipe village on Tuesday.

MoGro's first customer was Veronica Esquibel, a San Felipe tribal member

The NB3 Foundation's project at San Felipe Pueblo is supported by the WK Kellogg Foundation and other state and national funders and partners.

More than 100 shoppers and residents came to support the launch and purchase a variety of healthy and affordable food. MoGro is part of a 2 year project to evaluate a multi-prong effort at San Felipe Pueblo to combat childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes by increasing access to healthy food, nutrition education, physical activity and youth leadership. The NB3 Foundation's goal for the project is to achieve evidence-based results to improve the health of San Felipe children and families and to achieve findings that can inform the development of model programming elsewhere in Indian Country.

MoGro's Opening Day

A multi-generational crowd began gathering before the MoGro truck opened its doors in the village of San Felipe. MoGro's first San Felipe customer was Veronica Esquibel. Veronica, a San Felipe tribal member, voiced that she had a great experience, approving of both the selection and prices.

“It saves me a 45 minute drive to Albuquerque,”

she said.

“This is very convenient for the community since it's closer to the village and within walking distance,”

Esquibel added.

Two other San Felipe residents, Shawn Chavez and Christine Tenorio, also shared their appreciation for MoGro and the benefit it will bring to community members who have limited means of transportation.

“It's a 2 hour trip to go into town to get groceries and not everybody has a car,”

said Chavez. Chavez also pointed out that the Pueblo's only convenience store has recently stopped accepting the government subsidized food program, SNAP.

“Since the store stopped taking SNAP, some people have nowhere to shop, especially if they don't have transportation, so it's good to have some products in town.”