Home Care In La Mesa, NM

Mayor Tim Keller today joined volunteers from the Rotary Club of Albuquerque del Sol (RDS) and neighbors from the La Mesa neighborhood to plant more than 50 trees in the International District. The project is part of a public-private partnership between the City, RDS, Tree New Mexico, and neighbors to help restore Albuquerque’s urban forest, particularly in underserved communities.

“This project is all about neighbors and organizations coming together to make our city better,” stated Mayor Keller. “We need more of this, especially after this week’s storm knocked down so many of our trees. That’s why I’m encouraging Burqueños to get involved and help us plant thousands more trees across Albuquerque.”

The Rotary Club of Albuquerque del Sol spearheaded Saturday’s planting as one of its 2020 service projects. The Club wanted to do a tree planting that benefits children now and children in future generations. Five of the more than 50 trees were planted in Mesa Verde Park in May 2020 along with a plaque that says, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” The remaining 50 trees were planted Saturday in streetscapes where neighbors have adopted the trees to continue caring for them.

“The members of Rotary del Sol enjoy giving back to the community, and planting trees is a great way to do it,” stated Ed Robertson, President of RDS.

Last year, Mayor Tim Keller challenged residents and businesses to help the City achieve the ambitious 100,000 tree goal – one tree for every kid in Albuquerque. The challenge was issued as part of the City’s new urban forestry initiative which aims to refocus efforts on creating an effective and unified program to support a thriving urban forest.

Tree NM has been a critical partner with the City of Albuquerque in recent years helping to plant more than 3,000 trees with volunteers through the ABQ Neighborwoods program. These trees are all planted by neighborhood associations with Tree NM organizing and planning the logistics. Through this program, Tree NM helps neighborhoods put trees in the ground, monitors the trees for three years, trains citizens in the basics of planting and tree care, and helps build stronger communities.

People interested in organizing volunteer tree planting events in their neighborhoods can contact Tori Fox with the City’s Parks and Recreation Department at [email protected]. People can also contribute to the One Albuquerque tree planting initiative by donating to the One Albuquerque Fund (www.onealbuquerque.org) and designating the contribution for the tree fund.

In the classroom, the lab and under a microscope, students in New Mexico State University professor Soum Sanogo’s fungal biology class are learning about the structures of fungi, how fungi survive, spread and reproduce, and their role in the environment, including as a food source.

An April 4 visit to a mushroom farm in La Mesa, New Mexico, “allowed the students to experience how fungi go from the growth on petri plates to producing mushrooms in a commercial production facility,” Sanogo said.

“It is a full circle,” said founder/grower Ximena Zamacona, as she welcomed Sanogo and his students to the first ever public tour of Full Circle Mushrooms (FCM), the mushroom farm she started in 2019 on New Mexico Highway 28, about six miles south of Mesilla.

“We’re very excited to have you here,” FCM Production Supervisor Nathan Sanchez told the students.

Sanchez said FCM grows a dozen varieties of mushrooms, with names like blue oyster, black pearl, lion’s mane and shiitake. The farm grows about 500 pounds of mushrooms a week, Zamacona said. The mushrooms are sold in grocery stores and at farmers markets and are part of restaurant menus in Las Cruces, El Paso, Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Zamacona has also provided mushrooms for NMSU mushroom cooking demonstrations, Sanogo said, has hired NMSU students (including Sanchez, who earned a degree in biology in 2019), and has visited NMSU “to explore the use of byproducts from mushroom production as soil amendments.”

“Ximena Zamacona and Nathan Sanchez are great cooperators to NMSU in our educational effort to provide experiential learning and workforce development,” said Sanogo, who is a professor in fungal plant pathology in NMSU’s Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science. The mushroom farm tour “exemplifies cooperation of entities within our community in regard to educational and workforce development,” said Sanogo, who has a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Pennsylvania State University.

“I really enjoyed the visit to Full Circle Mushrooms,” said NMSU biology student Emily Embury. “As a graduate student who is studying fungal ecology, it was fascinating to see another side of fungi. Additionally, as someone who is considering a career in agricultural science, it was inspiring to see a place where my fungal knowledge could be applied and help improve mushroom farming.”

“The tour at Full Circle Mushrooms was surely a great experience for me as I was able to gain a firsthand sight of the behind scenes that occurs at a mushroom farm,” said Lavesh Gamez. “It is quite interesting to see a company working in a transition phase of expanding their operations of growing specialty mushrooms. Being able to see this operation really brings a different perspective to the (class) since we now observe and learn about the actual fruiting bodies of these fungal organisms. “

“I loved visiting Full Circle Mushrooms to see how what we're learning in class applies to industry,” Plant and Environmental Sciences graduate assistant McKenzie Stock said. “In my master's research, I'm working on a study about mushrooms in pecan orchards, and I loved getting to see so many mushroom species at different stages of development, like what we've been learning in Dr. Sanogo's class. Meeting with Ximena and Nathan gave me more insight about how my in-class and research learning could look in a consumer-facing career. I appreciated their thoughtfulness about the environmental and community impact of the systems at Full Circle, such as sharing compost with local farmers and organizations. Plus, mushrooms are just awesome!”

Fungal biology students also got to reflect on their FCM visit during an April 6 exam that included this question: “What do you consider to be the most challenging issues facing mushroom growers?”

“This is one strategy I use to create opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning in terms of facilitating factors and challenges,” Sanogo said.

Zamacona has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in agriculture, a career in controlled-environment crop cultivation, a natural green thumb and a love for sustainability and making nature and science work together. She also conducts mushroom research experimentation at FCM.

Visit eppws.nmsu.edu and fullcirclemushrooms.com.

Partnership one of many the school has formed to ensure the needs of its students are being met

The pint-sized students lined up in La Mesa Elementary School’s gymnasium on Tuesday morning, taking a turn at having their feet measured on a shoe sizing guide affixed to the gym floor.

A boy takes in the mountain of shoes piled atop three tables beneath a basketball hoop. He zeroes in on a red pair, passing over the black, neon green, blue and gray shoes that are also available in his size.

Nearby, a FedEx employee helps another student.

“Walk around, see how they feel,” the FedEx worker tells the little girl after tying the laces of her brand-new pink shoes.

Another little girl avails herself of the opportunity to slide around, the temptation of socks on a gym floor too great to pass up.

It’s just another day at La Mesa Elementary, a community school in the International District where staff members team up with community partners and organizations like FedEx to ensure that the needs of their students are being met.

On this particular day, FedEx employees clad in purple T-shirts emblazoned with the words FedEx Cares, are providing about 240 new pairs of shoes to La Mesa’s Pre-K to second-grade students.

“Having good shoes, it gives kids confidence out there,” says Joseph Perez, a FedEx manager who on this day is playing the role of shoe store worker for the steady stream of children coming through the gym doors.

“It shows that FedEx is out here in the community, not just delivering packages, but we’re also helping the children have a good start to their day, having a nice pair of shoes,” he adds. “It feels good when you go to school, or it feels good just playing outside knowing that you have a nice pair of shoes on.” Perez notes that the shoe giveaway is part of the company’s effort to promote healthy habits and being active.

Anne Garcia, a counselor at La Mesa, is grateful to FedEx and Operation Warm for teaming up to provide the shoes to her students.

“It really brings up their self-esteem,” she says. “It brings up attendance and it brings up their academic progress. They feel cared for and loved.”

For Erica Apodaca, La Mesa’s community school coordinator, assistance like the free shoes for students is essential. Many of the families the school serves are struggling to make ends meet with the rising costs for everything from groceries to rent.

As a community school, La Mesa tries to meet those needs through such services as a clothing bank and an emergency food pantry. Most of that assistance comes from the community. The school also strives to engage families through La Mesa Diner, a monthly event where the school hosts families for dinner and a hands-on activity.

“Community schools work because we are responsive to the needs of families,” Apodaca says. “We partner with our families, asking them what they need and then work to meet those needs. We give them a hand up rather than a handout.”

DONA ANA COUNTY, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — Improvements to internet access are coming to Doña Ana County.

Comcast was the recipient of two grants from the Connect New Mexico Pilot Program which will expand internet access in the following communities:

"So excited to hand two grants over to Comcast and to watch them build over the next couple of years and satisfy 12,000 homes from Vado all the way down to Sunland Park which is hitting a lot of communities in between," Office of Broadband Access and Expansion Director Kelly Schlegel said at the Vado/ Del Cerro Multipurpose Center in Mesquite Thursday.

Other grant recipients include:

A total of $38.6 million has been awarded in this first round of funding.

The initial funding is being matched by $28.3 million in nonstate funding for a total investment of $66.9 million, with plans to expand access to more than 13,400 homes, businesses, farms, ranches and community institutions across New Mexico, according to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The funds are the first of $120 million delivered through the Connect New Mexico Pilot Program, advancing the governor’s priority of ensuring statewide broadband access. Once expanded beyond the pilot phase, the program will leverage historic state and federal broadband investments to improve access through a state matching grant program that pairs state and federal funding with local vision and experience from communities, tribes, and New Mexico broadband providers.

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Area Vice President for Comcast in New Mexico, Chris Dunkeson, said work in Doña Ana County will begin in January. He expects people to be brought online during the early quarter of next year.

Comcast will be building a new fiber optic network to connect residents.

"This gives them the opportunity to be able to get online and educate effectively, and be part of the community, of actually the world at that point," said Dunkeson.

Grant applications were reviewed and evaluated on a competitive basis, with proposals evaluated in eight categories: broadband impact, community support, economic efficiency, project readiness, organizational qualifications, marketing and services strategy, adoption assistance programs and project sustainability, according to a news release from Grisham.

Applications are being accepted through Dec. 9, for the second wave of funding and through Feb. 27, 2023, for the third and final wave of funding.

Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis.

Applications received in one wave that do not receive funding will automatically be considered for the next wave of funding.

The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion, in collaboration with the Connect New Mexico Council, anticipates launching the full Connect New Mexico Broadband Grant Program, as outlined in the Connect New Mexico Act, in early 2023.

For more on the Connect New Mexico Pilot Program, click here.

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LA MESA – Driving scenic New Mexico Highway 28 has long been a favorite day trip for Don?a Ana County residents and visitors. Pecan tree branches arch over the roadway until the scenery gives way to historic farming communities.

For over 100 years, people driving the highway have pulled over at Chope’s Bar and Cafe? in La Mesa for a plate of enchiladas or chile rellenos or something cold to drink.

This historic location — which was serving food to passersby before New Mexico even became a state — has stayed open through two World Wars, a Depression, a cultural revolution, more wars, a recession and a digital revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced Chope's to close its doors — but not for good.

Now that more residents are vaccinated, the three sisters who own the place feel its safer to reopen, albeit slowly, meaning residents and guests will once again get to stop in to one the area's most venerated culinary and cultural institutions.

Restaurant owners Amelia Rivas, 83, Cecilia Yan?ez, 76, and Margarita Martinez, 74 — daughters of Jose? “Chope” Benavides — made the decision early on in the pandemic to remain fully closed. While other businesses offered customers the option of picking up food for take-out, they chose to keep their kitchen closed.

“I think our main concern was everybody's health and especially the sister’s health because we all have underlying conditions,” Yan?ez said. “And also it’s been depressing because we don't get to see all the people we used to see at the restaurant and all the families and friends and we've missed out on a lot of say, weddings, graduations, get togethers, at the restaurant.”

The bar, which is in a building separate from the restaurant, will be the first to reopen from noon to 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8. Going forward, operating days will be Thursdays through Saturdays.

The restaurant will open later, as former employees return and safety guidelines are implemented into the day-to-day running of the business. Rivas said reopening has been difficult, like starting all over again.

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Chope’s originated in 1909 in Longina Benavides’ house. Her son, Chope, and wife Guadalupe later took over the business and expanded the bar. The couple’s late eldest daughter, Adelaida Lucero, took particular interest in the bar.

“She liked the people, although she was very tough on the people. My dad used to tell her, ‘be careful with my customers,’ because she was tough,” Martinez laughed.

But the building has always remained the family home. It is where the four sisters were born and raised and worked. And where their community of customers have gathered over the years. The sisters have seen about three generations of customers come and go, Yan?ez said.

And now customers will see the managing of the cafe? and bar change hands as the sisters pass the day-to-day operations over to their children. Between the three there are eight children who Rivas said all decided they want to see the legacy of Chope’s continue.

Their collective 16 grandchildren are also not strangers to the family business. Martinez said all of them have worked in the cafe? before, so they will be ready for the next passing of the torch.

However, the sisters will not be far. They said they plan to be there to welcome back customers while the operations remain in capable hands. In their newfound free time, they said they look forward to worrying less about the business and spending more time with each of their grandchildren.

“They’re my life,” Martinez said of her family.

“Even if we're wandering or moving or at home, I feel that part of my heart is still here, and it always will be,” Yan?ez said.

The reopening date for the cafe? will be announced at a later date. The sisters just ask that the community is patient and stop in when their doors reopen.

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, [email protected] or @rromero_leah on Twitter.