La Planta, Nez Consulting, partners promote health through fresh food distribution

DADEESTŁIN HÓTSAA

Their goal is to share food and help communities in the region, said Victor J. Flores, the executive director of La Planta based in Tijeras, New Mexico.

“We want to get into the communities and be there,” Flores said.

La Planta, the Physicians Committee and former President Jonathan Nez and Phefelia Nez of Nez Consulting are organizing several plant-based food distribution events in the region. The first event, a trial run, took place March 5 at Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, where its peer navigators coordinated the distribution of 30,000 pounds of produce for NTU students, faculty and the Crownpoint community.

The next event was scheduled today, March 14, at the Moenkopi Developers Corporation Tuuvi Grounds (near Denny’s) in Moenkopi, Arizona. Because of the severe winter storm in Arizona’s High Country, some northern Arizona highways were closed Thursday night. Weather conditions impacted food delivery operations. The Moenkopi event has been postponed to March 21.

“It’s getting fresh produce to the communities,” Jonathan Nez said. Flores added it’s “one of the biggest things.”

Health and wellness

Two of Nez’s top priorities as the Navajo Nation vice president and president, respectively, were health and wellness. That hasn’t changed since he left office in January 2023.

“I made a lot of connections throughout the years and now we are consultants, my wife and I. We have a consulting firm,” he said. “We have a lot of good people––they’re willing to help in many ways.”

Nez Consulting teamed up with the Physicians Committee in October 2024, providing workshops in the Nation and the Hopi reservation.

“We brought a group of folks together and one of them was La Planta,” Nez explained. “Fast forward to today, we kept a partnership going. We just got done with a successful distribution at NTU. That partnership was facilitated by a young man, Kory Begay. He wanted to do something for the students there.”

Now the group is looking to provide distribution events for NTU’s four instructional sites: Chinle, Teec Nos Pos, Kirtland, and A:shiwi College and Career Readiness Center in Zuni, New Mexico. The group will provide a distribution event during the four-day Tuba City Spring Festival on May 17. Additionally, it is collaborating with Red Sun Productions to organize a health and wellness concert.

“Victor’s talking with (Fred Davis of Red Sun Productions), they’re working on other food distributions,” said Nez, whose administration worked with many nonprofit organizations like La Planta and the Physicians Committee, focused on a plant-based diet, to bring food to the Navajo Nation during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We really focused on eating right and being healthy, pushing back on diabetes, pushing back on cardiovascular disease,” Nez explained. “There’s not much produce available in our supermarkets. Don’t get me wrong, Bashas’ is great. They’ve got produce coming in but this––gets right into the community.”

Nez added he doesn’t see many health and wellness activities in communities across the Navajo Nation. “We just want to keep that momentum going. We want to make sure there’s continuity. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple of years.”

La Planta

Flores has been working with Mexican-American and Native American communities, dedicated to fostering awareness of the vegan lifestyle, for nearly 10 years. During the pandemic, Flores worked with another organization that offered mobile food pantries, which La Planta reactivated because it aligned with its mission.

La Planta’s mission is empowering underserved communities to adopt plant-based diets through culturally sensitive education, accessible food aid, and inclusive outreach.

“It’s a little different but we still felt that would align with our mission of getting food and information out to communities that aren’t usually exposed to healthier eating,” Flores said. “Mr. Nez, I ran into him back in October. We thought it would be a good idea if we reactivated all these contacts we used to have of resources of food, to get out to the communities because obviously, the need is still there––all over the world.

“The goal is the have these distributions be consistent,” he added. “(And) help our communities and be informed with information. We’re not here to push anything on anybody. We’re here to share that food. It’s important for us.”

Flores said local teams at the distribution events hand out food at their own procedure.

“Most of the produce comes from the San Fernando Valley in California,” Flores explained. “A lot of the food is rescued off in the fields. And a lot of the food is also rescued from big corporates, like Whole Foods, Safeway, Kroger––all those big companies. And we’re able to rescue this through another organization in Los Angeles. And then we pay for the transportation to give to communities we want to give to.”

If you go:

Drive-thru Community Fresh Food Distribution
Friday, March 21, 2025, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Moenkopi Developers Corporation’s Tuuvi Grounds (near Denny’s)
Info: 928-283-4500

 

Published March 14, 2025 at 10:42 a.m.     Updated March 14, 2025 at 3:41 p.m.
A correction was made on March 14, 2025: An earlier version of this article stated a distribution event would happen today, March 14, in Moenkopi, Arizona. Because of the severe winter storm in Arizona’s High Country, some northern Arizona highways were closed. Weather conditions impacted food delivery operations.

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