As Farm Fresh Director at La Semilla Food Center, Rebecca Wiggins-Reinhard works to create a more equitable, healthy and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region of southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. She is currently working with teachers and school administrators to implement a Farm to School program to help youth learn about food production, preparation and nutrition, providing technical support for developing school gardens, and connecting local farmers with schools. Rebecca is also co-facilitating a Youth Food Policy Council in southern Doña Ana County, working with youth and community members to identify barriers to healthy food access, identifying steps to address them, and making recommendations to the appropriate governing bodies. To help increase access to healthy food, Rebecca is also focusing on strengthening farmers’ market accessibility, helping more markets become EBT friendly, and assisting food entrepreneurs to develop and market food products. She will also be coordinating youth-led market stands in rural communities.

Rebecca previously worked with the Colonias Development Council’s Cultivando Tradición program as a Youth Conservation Corps site supervisor and youth garden educator. In Anthony and Chaparral, NM, she helped collaborate with youth and families to create community gardens, construct greenhouses, provide community trainings on gardening basics, pest management and harvesting techniques, and fostered youth understanding of civic involvement and higher education opportunities.

A dedicated human rights activist, working to raise awareness and organize support to find solutions to social justice issues, Rebecca currently helps direct and manage Sophia’s Circle, a volunteer non-profit organization devoted to finding and expanding markets for fair trade products from women’s cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico, and throughout the U.S.-Mexico border region.

She currently lives with her husband, artist Jesse Reinhard, in Las Cruces, New Mexico.