Our View – Originally Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican by The New Mexican,
Join The Food Depot in Fight Against Hunger
Things could be about to get tougher for thousands of hungry Northern New Mexico adults and children. That includes the more than 13% of Santa Fe County residents experiencing what various agencies define as food insecurity — missing meals on a regular basis or being unsure how they will feed themselves or their families while they juggle expenses like rent, medicine and child care.
They are invisible to many of us. If you want a glimpse of what the situation looks like, go out to Siler Road early on the first and third Thursdays of the month. You’ll see vehicles line up for blocks. They are there to get boxes of emergency food assistance respectfully handed out by volunteers during the local food bank’s regular drive-thru distributions from its warehouse. Others get sustenance through mobile pantries, schools, churches and various other points throughout the nine-county area of Northern New Mexico that The Food Depot serves, either directly or through scores of nonprofit partners.
“Hunger is not a social issue in and of itself,” said Jill Dixon, The Food Depot’s executive director. “It is caused by poverty and income disparity. We don’t have the wherewithal to solve that social problem, but we can try to hold the line.”
About a fifth of the food distributed through the food bank, of which 60% is fruit and vegetables, is donated from stores or places like Santa Fe’s Sage Bakehouse that have still-nutritious foodstuffs to spare. Much of it is purchased from vendors, including local growers.
But shifting policies at the federal level are sending ripples of concern through this network.
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ended federal funding for the Regional Farm to Food Bank program, creating uncertainty for local farmers and ranchers who sell to food banks and reducing access to locally grown food. Created under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the program’s loss disrupts supply chains, Dixon said, and impacts livelihoods of farmers and communities they help feed.
Then came an early April surprise. The federal agency announced it was pulling funding from a commodity program in order to reallocate the money elsewhere. That meant truckloads of items including cheese, eggs, milk, pork, turkey and dried fruit that were expected to start arriving at The Food Depot in mid-April would not be coming.
This forced the food bank to scramble, spreading food out a little thinner while it conducted an emergency appeal for money to replace the lost supplies.
But, with the prospect of another round of inflation and the rising cost of housing, perhaps the scariest threat facing antihunger planners is what might happen to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program. The Republican-led Congress has been weighing budget proposals to shift much of the responsibility for funding SNAP to state governments, as well as adding work requirements and limiting waivers for those struggling to find employment.
Cuts could require New Mexico to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain the food aid program. One analysis found the state has the highest SNAP participation in the country, with 21% of New Mexicans getting benefits under the program.
“There is a degree to which New Mexico can be prepared to back up SNAP,” Dixon said, “but we don’t know by how much.” She called SNAP the first line of defense for people who are food insecure. “For every meal that we can provide,” she said, “SNAP is able to provide nine.”
Government sources last year accounted for 29% of the food bank’s budget. Foundations and grants added 19%. But individual donors provided the biggest share: 38%.
One way The Food Depot supplements revenue needed for its various relief efforts is an annual fundraising drive called Neighbor to Neighbor. On Monday, the food bank kicked off the year’s biggest fundraiser with a goal of bringing in $500,000 — enough to provide 2 million meals.
Neighborhoods, businesses and organizations big and small join in a friendly competition to see who can contribute the most in cash donations. Participation is through a page on the food bank’s website — thefooddepot.org/n2n — where donations are recorded by team names. Categories include such sources as senior living facilities or neighborhoods, based on size.
Started 13 years ago as a food drive, the volunteer-led effort last year gathered more than $480,000 for the local fight against hunger. This year’s competition will run until Sept. 23.
So get your workplace, your book group or your pickleball league together and pitch in for a good cause. The need is real.
