According to Pam Roy, an activist on the New Mexico Food Gap Task Force, one third of U.S. counties are considered 'food deserts' where residents have to drive more than 10 miles to a grocery store. Here in New Mexico, it is often more like 25 to 100 miles round trip — and residents are more likely to buy food that spoils quickly like fresh fruits and vegetables.

Currently, the Food Gap Task Force is working to find creative ways to help rural areas gain better access to healthy and affordable food by trying to close the food gap between city folk and residents of far flung communities.

For Dixon locals who don't feel like jumping in the car and driving to Española for basic food items, the Dixon Cooperative Market is right down the road. "Before this store opened, locals had to drive an hour just to get a bottle of milk," said Nelson Rhodes, co-manager of the Market.

Community owned and operated, the Dixon Co-Op serves the greater Embudo Valley with an emphasis on providing high-quality food in a co-op setting. By doing so, the store provides an opportunity for local growers and producers to sell locally and contribute to a growing land-based economy.

The result of two years' planning by a local board of directors, the market opened its doors in June 2005 in the old Zeller's store that now houses the Dixon Community Center and a local radio station.

"It started with an idea and just took off," said co-manager Ann Hendrie. "We saw there was a great need in the community for this type of store." A USDA grant, along with some small local grants and donated equipment, got the project going. The same board started the Farmers Market, which is held in front of the store during the summer months.

"People get along really well here," Rhodes said. When it first opened, it was viewed as the old hippie store, but it didn't take long for the natives to adapt. "They went through their culture shock back in the '60s."

The store offers a wide array of food items: bulk foods such as organic flours, oatmeal, nuts, beans and rice, and fresh local produce and herbs. A selection of goat cheeses, organic and conventional milk and butter, pre-packaged pasta dishes, pastries from The Chocolate Maven and staples such as cooking oil and noodles. Local ranches provide fresh, additive-free meat.

"Even though we have a small client base, if someone comes in and asks for a product we try to get it," Rhodes adds. "Because of the mix of population here, we not only carry organic and bulk foods, but we also sell items like chips, dips — and even Twinkies."

"We hashed it out in board meetings that we didn't want to dictate people's needs by making the store only organic or refusing to carry certain products," Hendrie said. "We wanted the store to serve everyone in the community.

"Sometimes customers feel guilty when they see we actually ordered some obscure items they requested and think they have to buy it," Hendrie added. "And the trickiest part is figuring out how much to order, particularly perishable goods like bread, which we have delivered fresh daily."

Increasingly, customers are buying their weekly grocery supplies at the co-op, or splitting their shopping needs between the co-op and a conventional store in town. "But mainly they come here when they run out of things or to just buy what they're going to have for supper," Rhodes said.

According to Rhodes, prices at the store are competitive with those of specialty stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods Market. "The big selling point is the fact that people don't have to drive too far to get many of the items they need."

Eventually, the co-op would like to expand to be able to carry a wider variety of foods and meats and build a certified kitchen, as well as have a deli and make tortillas in-house. The library — the co-op's current landlord — has plans to build a new community center that will soon make the expansion a reality.

Meanwhile, the store has become a popular gathering spot. "I used to never see anybody," Rhodes says, "but because we offer so many different things, I get to see everyone."

IF YOU GO

If you plan on attending the Dixon Studio Tour this weekend, stop by and visit the Dixon Cooperative Market in the Community Center off N.M. 75, about 50 miles north of Santa Fe. To find out more about the co-op, visit www.dixonmarket.com. For details about this weekend's Dixon Studio Tour, visit dixonarts.org.