A New Mexico woman is on a mission to change the quality of food sold at national Dollar General chains, and her efforts will help local families and farmers.
Helga Garza works for the Agri-Cultura Cooperative Network, which helps local farmers get their products into grocery stores. She said bargain stores, like Dollar General, don’t have enough healthy food options.
Realizing there is a Dollar General on almost every corner, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She said:
“We knew they weren’t going away and they were multiplying at a very fast rate and where those stores are coming up are in communities that are five miles away or more from a grocery store.”
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Making sure she covered all her bases, Garza bought stock in Dollar General so she could attend shareholder meetings and help improve how items are sourced. Her hard work is about to pay off. In September, locally sourced salsa, salad dressing, and dehydrated vegetables will be on the shelves of Dollar Generals stores in the South Valley and International District. Garza said:
“Instead of getting the saturated potato chips, they will be able to access dehydrated fruit, actual real blue corn chips coming from our farms up north.”
Garza pointed out some veggies that have sprouted in a greenhouse in the South Valley, adding:
“These are a variety of green chile, arugula.”
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KRQE News 13 spoke with local community members, who said they love the idea of healthy, locally grown items available at a bargain price.
That’s just the beginning, Garza hopes Dollar General will ultimately sell fresh produce from local farms. She said:
“This is a way to show other corporations how they can invest in communities and be good neighbors to us.”
Garza said this is the first time in the U.S. that Dollar General will partner with local farms. Wonderful!
