New Mexico is choosing abundance in food policy by Jill Dixon
My View Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican on June 6, 2026
New Mexico Is Choosing Abundance In Food Policy
By Jill Dixon
You never forget the lines of cars at your first food distribution, or the clients. Somehow, even after your hundredth, moments still stay with you.
As the executive director of The Food Depot, community members have questioned if our mission to end hunger is possible. The last few years I’ve challenged, “Hunger is a policy choice.” Any policy choice at a governmental level can create scarcity, increasing food distribution lines or embracing abundance for families.
The Food Depot propels the movement toward food security by supporting a strong network of nonprofit organizations and our own programs, all of which cumulatively provide food assistance at 150-plus locations each month. Dedicated staff, volunteers and partnerships have made the staggering task of distributing 12 million pounds of food to 43,000 New Mexicans possible this year. These clients are friends and neighbors hit hardest by the affordability crisis.
Food banks, by design, should be the last line of defense to prevent people from going hungry. Long before someone, perhaps a senior, enters our Thursday morning distribution line before the sun rises, they have exhausted all other options. This grandmother has used her Social Security to pay the rent for her small family. Her daughter’s paycheck has paid utility bills, hospital bills and school supplies for her granddaughter. They have both hustled for extra income this month to fix the car and used their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/WIC funds by mid-month.
In this space of anxiety, we recognize that all U.S. states are not created equally. There is no uniformity from state to state in safety net services offered, including the presence of universal school meals for her granddaughter.
Each state must make its own policy choices regarding food security, one of scarcity or one of abundance. In New Mexico, we choose abundance.
The Governor’s Office and state Legislature took bold policy action in 2024 to create Universal Healthy School Meals. With nearly 25% of New Mexico’s children experiencing food security that year, Universal Healthy School Meals expanded meal eligibility to more than 150,000 previously underserved children, offering an additional 2.5 million breakfasts and 3 million lunches.
By making meals accessible to all, the healthy meals program eliminated the shame and stigma surrounding reduced lunch. The state’s continued investment has secured schools as places where children can learn and grow.
Additionally, in 2024, the state made a bold policy decision to expand SNAP, formerly food stamps, eligibility from 165% to 200% of federal poverty level. Although SNAP is a federal program, this decision made grocery benefits accessible to an additional 67,697 New Mexicans. SNAP is the nation’s most effective hunger-relief program. These households were empowered to shop for their own groceries with additional SNAP benefits rather than seek emergency food assistance. This policy choice embraced abundance and strengthened the economy.
The Food Depot celebrates the strategic leadership and continued commitment to food security from our New Mexico policymakers. Policy interventions have reduced childhood poverty at a rate far exceeding the national average.
Using the supplemental poverty measure, New Mexico’s childhood poverty rate falls to 10.3% compared to the standard measure of 24.2%, ranking the state as 21st in the nation. Policies of abundance are working, and this progress must continue.
New Mexicans are facing increased fuel costs, transportation barriers and food-supply challenges. Families will continue to need support from state leadership and regional food banks to make ends meet. Still, we are empowered by the commitment from the New Mexico Health Care Authority, the state Legislature and the Governor’s Office. New Mexicans have proven that when we choose policies of abundance, our communities begin to thrive.
Jill Dixon is the executive director of The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s regional food bank serving nine counties.
Bagging most beans, spilling a few, Atalaya Elementary students pitch in at The Food Depot (SFNM)
Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican on November 15, 2025
Bagging most beans, spilling a few, Atalaya Elementary students pitch in at The Food Depot
By André Salkin asalkin@sfnewmexican.com, November 15, 2025
Carmen Garcia, 10, adds a scoop of pinto beans to a bag Thursday alongside her fifth grade classmates from Atalaya Elementary School while volunteering for the second time at The Food Depot. (
The children understood their mission: Bag and label pinto beans to be distributed to families in need.
About 40 fifth-graders used division of labor and efficient assembly lines to tackle the volunteer job Thursday at The Food Depot with the professionalism and seriousness befitting a noble task.
The young volunteers circled a couple of 2,000-pound bean sacks in the halls of The Food Depot and got to work. Some scooped beans into bags; some weighed the bags; others tied them shut. At the end of the long table of bean-packagers, Ray Smith, 10, developed a sophisticated system to arrange the finished bags in a neat, stable fashion.
“ We haven’t had any major bean spills. It’s a big old assembly line, and it’s already proven to be efficient,” Ray said.
“And they’re a fun food to package,” chipped in Calvin Lovato, 11, at his side. “That’s not the main thing, but they definitely are fun.”
The school outing is the second in a series of holiday-season visits teachers and students say has been a big hit at the school; staff said it’s been a boon for the food bank, which has recently seen a surge in demand.
As time passed, adolescent restlessness grew, beans began to spill, and the group’s initial efficiency faltered.
After tying off a bag of beans, 10-year-old Lia Cotofana hurled the package at Seven Peterson.
“If you drop that, you’re cooked,” Seven said as he caught the fastball.
Another student reckoned he’d like to jump into Ray’s meticulously arranged pile of bagged beans. Izaiah Morales, 10, who said his family directly benefits from Food Depot distributions, wrapped his arms around a precarious stack of bean bags piled so high it reached his glasses.
Seven, 11, said he has traveled far and wide: five continents and 25 countries, taking away from his travels a simple message: “A lot of people, me included, take food and water for granted, and a lot of other resources too.”
Many of the kids shared the sentiment that the work they were doing was vital.
“They say they want to give back,” said teacher Bart Ramey, who established the tradition at the school with an October visit, and who has plans for another field trip in December.
“They say it makes them feel better about their self-esteem,” he added, an angle he said plays into the social-emotional learning that’s part of the students’ curriculum.
In a separate room, Lisa Rubin, the other fifth grade teacher, was managing her 17 students. She said she jumped at the opportunity when Ramey proposed it.
“ We have the same values,” she said. “We both are about … having them be conscious socially.”
“ It’s kind to help people,” said 11-year-old Aidan Martinez, as he packed beans alongside his twin brother Aaron. “You need to spread joy.”
Jackie Lighter, 10, whose first volunteer experience was Thursday, said she “might actually want to work” at The Food Depot when she gets older, “probably because it’s fun to bag beans,” she said.
Items like beans are standard to the food bank’s distribution packages, which also include 50%-60% fresh produce and vegetables, dairy or eggs and a protein item.
‘Right now, especially’
“ It’s important to give back,” said Keshav Hedrick, 10, who wore a very serious face as he slid labels into bean bags. “Right now, especially, people need it more because the government shut down. It’s harder for people to get food.”
The students’ visit, an exercise in civic engagement — and some fun — is timely for The Food Depot, which serves nine counties as one of the region’s preeminent food distributors. The food bank has seen a 40% increase in the number of those seeking its food, said Pauline Montoya, lead volunteer program coordinator for the food bank — a product of uncertainty and fear around suspension of SNAP benefits, also referred to as food stamps.
“It was a little scary,” she said. But she trusted her leadership and hundreds of volunteers, who she refers to as her “little babies.”
“We kind of went back to our COVID times of saying, ‘Hey, we’ve made it through this.’ ”
It was during the pandemic that Montoya decided to join the food bank. She recalled the food distributions that fed her family — a single mother with five children growing up on San Ildefonso Pueblo.
“ Just seeing I had food in my own community,” she said, “I was like, ‘I could be doing that for someone else.’"
Join The Food Depot in Fight Against Hunger (Editorial from SFNM Staff)
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.
Groups gather to discuss federal cuts' impacts on kids and families
Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
'Feeling intense pressure': Groups gather to discuss federal cuts' impacts on kids and families
By Esteban Candelaria ecandelaria@sfnewmexican.com Jun 2, 2025
A time of adversity is often the best time to pull together.
In the face of proposed sweeping federal funding cuts to programs affecting thousands of New Mexico’s children and families, dozens of community members, advocates and nonprofit leaders gathered for an “All in For Kids Town Hall” Monday evening to discuss the expected impacts and the ways they can pull through the problems together.
Panelists at the event, held at Christ Church Santa Fe, encouraged community members to call on their state and federal legislators to oppose cuts proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration and Republican lawmakers. They also urged nonprofits to work together to fill gaps caused by funding cuts.
“We’re all feeling intense pressure, because the needs of our families are really growing, the stressors that our families are experiencing are growing,” said Kate Mitchell, a volunteer program manager for Communities In Schools of New Mexico. “And so we just want to make sure that there’s a network there to provide the support as best we can, despite the federal cuts.”
A significant program to fall to federal cost cutting is Communities In Schools of New Mexico’s Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention program, which reaches schools across the state — especially in rural and tribal areas. It helps train educators how to see the signs of struggling young people and help them.
Over the past year and a half, the program has trained nearly 4,500 school staff, students and community members throughout the state, special projects manager Adrian Sotelo said, saving over a dozen children in the process.
But funding was stripped away earlier this year, leaving just until the end of June for the program to continue operating. Sotelo and a colleague will lose their jobs.
“We hope this is only a long pause in our ability to offer this free, lifesaving training for rural New Mexico communities,” Sotelo said.
‘Basic promise is under attack’
Top of mind for many at Monday’s town hall were proposals to significantly cut Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program under a budget reconciliation bill recently passed in the U.S. House and on the table in the Senate.
The measure, referred to by Trump as “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” would, among many other changes, provide trillions of dollars in tax breaks and allow for increased spending on border security. Lawmakers and the president have expressed an interest in fast-tracking the measure, hoping to get it on the president’s desk by July 4, The Washington Post has reported.
New Mexico could see a reduction in federal participation in its Medicaid programs — which cover approximately 38% of all residents and 70% of children — by roughly $700 million, according to a recent analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee. The reconciliation bill could increase New Mexico’s matches for SNAP benefits, or food aid, to as much as $288.7 million, another analysis found.
The belt tightening in food assistance programs for New Mexicans would be far too much to overcome with charity, said Jill Dixon, executive director of The Food Depot, a Santa Fe-based food bank that serves a wide swath of Northern New Mexico.
“Make absolutely no mistake that we cannot do it. The charitable food system cannot compensate for the loss that we are facing,” she said. “... We’ll do our best, but we cannot replace the meals that we’re talking about; it is not financially possible. And the state of New Mexico cannot accept the cost share.”
New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty health care director Arika Sánchez also decried the federal plans to slash Medicaid funding.
“We believe that every New Mexican deserves access to health care, dignity and the peace of mind to care for our families,” she said. “We know that right now, that basic promise is under attack.”
‘A way of inserting this fear’
The pressure felt by community organizations also stems from threats made by the Trump administration — even though it’s too soon to tell whether the administration will make good on them.
The cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, for instance, appeared alongside nearly two dozen New Mexico communities designated as “sanctuary jurisdictions” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, news station KOAT-TV reported.
The list, which has since been removed from the federal agency’s website, was published in after an executive order by Trump calling for the suspension of certain funds to such so-called sanctuary jurisdictions.
What that meant, exactly, was unclear, said Ivan Cornejo of the city of Santa Fe’s Immigration Committee. Still, the threat to Santa Fe — and cities like it — was quite clear, he noted in an interview.
“It is definitely a way of bullying,” he said. “It is definitely a threat. It is definitely a way of inserting this fear to our communities.”
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
USDA Terminates Regional Farm to Food Bank Program
USDA Federal Funding Cuts Terminate Successful Program Connecting Local NM Food Producers and Food BanksMarch 17, 2025
Santa Fe, NM – The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s Food Bank, regrets to announce that federal funding supporting the Regional Farm to Food Bank (RF2FB) program has been terminated, despite an initial extension, effectively bringing the federally funded program to an end.The RF2FB has been instrumental in connecting New Mexico farmers, ranchers, and food producers to the state’s food bank network. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) termination of federal funding creates uncertainty for local food producers who sell to food banks and reduces access to locally grown food statewide.
The RF2FB program, created under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, is currently funded through the USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement. Since its inception, the RF2FB has been a significant purchaser of local foods, accounting for 34% of all NM Grown institutional purchases from small and midsize producers in 2024.
“During the last three years, New Mexico’s RF2FB program has been a national standout, spending more than $3.6 million with local producers on healthy and culturally appropriate food,” says Denise Miller, Executive Director of the New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association that partners with The Food Depot on this initiative.
In October 2024, the USDA announced a $500 million extension of the LFPA program, with $2.8 million designated for New Mexico, prompting producers to plan and invest in the next three-year cycle. However, on March 7, 2025, the USDA informed the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) that it would terminate the 2025 LFPA Cooperative Agreement, ending federal funding for the RF2FB and halting operations when the current LFPA program ends.
“The federal government’s decision to end this program delivers a major blow to families like mine who are heavily invested in feeding our communities locally produced beef. There’s nothing more American than feeding your community fresh beef that was born, raised, and processed in a 60-mile radius. Ranching isn’t just our livelihood—it’s our heritage,” explains Manny Encinias, owner of Trilogy Beef and Buffalo Creek Ranch in Moriarty, NM. “Without this support, we risk losing more than income; we risk losing the ability to sustain our land, our families, and our way of life. This decision doesn’t just impact ranchers. It threatens the entire rural economy, including locally owned businesses like our USDA meat processing facility, which depends on ranching families like us to stay in operation. Perhaps most concerning, it makes it even harder to bring the next generation back to the ranch,” stresses Mr. Encinias. “Without programs like this, the future of family ranching becomes even more uncertain, discouraging the very people we need to carry this way of life forward.”
The loss of federal support has a profound impact on local farmers, ranchers, food banks, and families who depend on this critical program.
- 94% of RF2FB purchases in 2024 were purchased from socially disadvantaged and historically underserved producers.
- 899,402 pounds of locally grown food have been distributed since January 2023, providing 749,502 healthy meals.
- Every $1 spent on local food generates $1.70 in economic benefits, reinforcing regional economies.
- The RF2FB has delivered food to over 250 distribution sites across all 33 New Mexico counties.
- 17 out of 33 New Mexico counties have participating producers.
- In FY24, 34% of all NM Grown institutional purchases came from The RF2FB.
- Over 200 New Mexican farmers, ranchers, and small local food businesses have benefited from this program.
The Food Depot, in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, manages the program for the New Mexico Association of Food Banks (NMAFB). All five of New Mexico’s food banks secure food through partnerships with donors, nationwide procurement efforts, and food rescue. The Regional Farm to Food Bank program allowed the food bank network to invest in local producers and enhanced the healthy and culturally responsive food options at local food bank distributions.
“This program has played a vital role in strengthening New Mexico’s food system,” says Jill Dixon, Executive Director at The Food Depot. “The loss of funding will disrupt supply chains and also impact the livelihoods of the farmers and the communities they help feed.”
The Food Depot and the New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association (NMFMA) are urging New Mexico’s congressional delegation to create a permanent LFPA program in the next Farm Bill to maintain the proven partnership between local farmers, growers, and food banks. Additionally, we are pushing to reverse the decision to terminate LFPA25 and reinstate it. The Food Depot and NMFMA remain committed to advocating for strong food systems and ensuring that all New Mexicans continue to have access to fresh, locally sourced food.
Organizational Contacts
The Food Depot
Jill Dixon, Executive Director
New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association
Denise Miller, Executive Director
“Movement” Earns Emmy Nomination
The Food Depot’s “Movement” Earns Emmy NominationSeptember 11, 2024
Santa Fe—The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s food bank, was honored this week to receive a prestigious Emmy nomination for its short film “Movement”. The film, created by Docufilms in late 2023 and released shortly after, was produced by Docufilms founder Michael Campbell and directed by Zac Cornfield.
“Movement” was nominated in the Branded Content Long Form category by the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Their designated awards region includes Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and El Centro, CA. Winners will be announced at an awards gala on November 16, 2024.
Donors and supporters can watch the 20-minute film now on The Food Depot’s website.
The Rocky Mountain Emmys website describes Branded Content nominees as “excellence in connecting or engaging an audience with an organization’s brand. The content integrates the brand or brand messaging in the storytelling in an entertaining, creative, or emotional way. This prestigious nomination highlights The Food Depot’s innovation and heart, bringing its hunger-relief mission and impact to life in a way that stays with audiences long after the film ends.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled,” shares Jill Dixon, Executive Director of The Food Depot. “This honor really belongs to everyone who makes the daily movement of The Food Depot a reality—our staff, volunteers, supporters, and partners. We are so thankful to Docufilms for the gift of ‘Movement’ and for this nomination.”
“Movement” tells the inspiring story of the movement of millions of pounds of food from farms, trucks, food distributions, and volunteers into the hands of clients across Northern New Mexico. The Food Depot and its partners work daily to move emergency food, but also work to advocate for long-term food security solutions. The film features the movement of The Food Depot’s staff and volunteers at their own programs and a look at food-security partners, including Reunity Resources in Santa Fe, Bernal Community Center in San Miguel County, and Market Street grocery store.
“The Food Depot is definitely on the move,” says “Movement” producer Michael Campbell, of Docufilms. “The first time I toured The Food Depot I thought we were going to do a film about warehouses, trucks, and logistics. What I soon realized was we were doing a film about the fight to end hunger, powered by the love and dedication of its staff and volunteers. This nomination is recognition of their commitment to ending poverty in Northern New Mexico.”
“The film tries to capture the true spirit of The Food Depot,” shares director Zac Cornfield. “I hope this nomination encourages even more people to join their movement.”
The 20-minute film can be watched on The Food Depot’s website at thefooddepot.org/movement.
Organization Contact: Amanda Bregel, Communications Manager
Sherry Hooper and the Food Depot — game-changers
Originally publishes as an "Our View" in the Santa Fe New Mexican on July 2, 2024.
OUR VIEW
Sherry Hooper and the Food Depot — game-changers
Sherry Hooper has left the building.
The last day at work for the longtime Food Depot executive director was Sunday, marking more than two decades of leadership that transformed how food is delivered to hungry people in nine Northern New Mexican counties. We are grateful for her service and for the organization that has transformed as the needs of the community changed.
Today, this beloved community partner delivers 9 million pounds of food annually.
When she began at the food bank in September 2001, much of the food available had been prepared in restaurants. Hooper saw the need for shelf-stable goods that people could take home and turn into tasty, healthy meals for themselves and their families. Additionally, she had to lay down a stronger institutional structure — The Food Depot lacked adequate agency records, financial reserves and had few big donors to fund its programs. Her days would be spent working in the warehouse and then late into the night writing grants and donor assistance requests.
She knew the need was great and her services had to expand.
By 2007, she was ready to begin work on that expansion. In 2013, The Food Depot moved into its own warehouse — 27,000 square feet of storage. That allowed more staples to be on hand and made it possible to expand healthy offerings. The expanded depot also began offering wraparound services to provide diapers and pet food to those in need.
The agency always was ready to react as the situation on the ground changed. The Food Depot — twice a Santa Fe Community Foundation Piñon Award Tried and True winner — continually seeks to improve. One way that happens is the involvement of hundreds of community members in the work of feeding people. The desire to fight hunger, in addition to putting food in people’s bellies, also has created a community of compassionate people. Whether attending the much-anticipated Souper Bowl fundraiser each year, participating in the Neighbor to Neighbor Fund Drive or putting on a food drive, the work brings people together in Santa Fe.
Nowhere was that more evident than in the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic. With so many individuals out of work, schools closed and senior centers shut, many more people in the community didn’t have enough to eat. The Food Depot started handing out bags of groceries directly, with hundreds of cars in line at each distribution. For kids unable to get free lunches at school, meals were prepared and parents swung by school parking lots to take food home.
Just as The Food Depot proved to be innovative with food delivery, Hooper understood her group had to do more than provide food, as important as that was. She became an advocate for better food policy, whether at the local, state or federal level. She was instrumental in forming the Santa Fe Food Policy Council in 2008, lobbied for elimination of the food tax at the Legislature and raises alarms whenever Congress threatens to harm important food security programs. She also is an outspoken supporter of better wages because, as research shows, when people earn a decent paycheck, they can afford groceries. Eliminating poverty will help eliminate hunger.
Now, Hooper has new adventures ahead. As is important for a good leader, she trained a worthy successor. Her longtime second in command, Jill Dixon, has been named executive director. In Dixon’s capable hands, we are sure new approaches are inevitable — this is an ever-changing organization, after all — with eyes focused always on the goal of eliminating hunger.
But future successes, in part, will owe much to the 20-plus years Sherry Hooper spent at the helm. Her work to eliminate the insecurity that comes when the next meal is uncertain and the cupboard is bare has made the difference in the lives of thousands of New Mexicans. What a legacy.
From The Food Depot Staff:
Hunger is going to college as students struggle
MY VIEW By Sarita CargasMar 23, 2024
Original Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Editor’s note: This is the latest in an occasional series on hunger in New Mexico.
College students are a privileged and entitled bunch. Or are they? Though it is a privilege to be recipients of the Opportunity Scholarship, for many, the opportunity to graduate with a degree will not be realized. Perhaps this is because thousands of New Mexico college students are hungry.
A recent survey by our University of New Mexico research team, soon to be publicly available, reveals 58% of students who participated in the study were food insecure, 46% were housing insecure and 14% were homeless. While it is too early to tell how many students will graduate on the Opportunity Scholarship, previous trends do not bode well.
The current six-year graduation rate at UNM is 47%, and many other New Mexico colleges have lower graduation rates. More than just good academic habits are required to reach the end goal. It is hard to study without a full stomach and a safe place to sleep. The basic needs of food and shelter come first, and thousands of our students do not have them.
This is what one student answered sarcastically when I asked a class to tell me if they felt privileged: “Does being privileged include having to worry about your next meal? … As a privileged college student, I get to neglect my basic needs to pass courses … while trying to help make this world a better place as a researcher and still barely afford … instant ramen.” In the statewide survey, students also shared experiences like: “Once I was so hungry that I did not have the energy to go to class, and I took a failing grade for the week.” Another said: “I had to miss class on more than one occasion to sell plasma so I could buy food.”
Perhaps you are wondering if they are working. The majority do have jobs. Even working full time does not guarantee stability because of the low-wage work students often do. This student explained, “My rent is behind, so sometimes I get overwhelmed and think it would be best I stop school and find another full-time job, and just work two full-time jobs.” We also discovered the problem of needs insecurity affects graduate students as much as undergraduates. Sometimes this is due to the fact that graduates working as teaching or research assistants on campus are not paid enough to live on. They told us that “the graduate assistantship stipends barely cover rent, bills, groceries and gas.” And, “The pay isn’t high enough for me to regularly eat healthy food. … I work [part time] and take 9-12 credit hours each semester, plus regular service work for my department, and trying to fit my own research in there somewhere, which means I do not have the time to pursue a regular second job.” It will come as no surprise that our data proves that needs-insecure students tend to have lower grades and more commonly drop out than their needs secure peers.
Though getting a college degree is the single best method of assuring upward mobility, leaving school without a degree and debt has contributed to downward mobility for the nearly 40 million Americans in this situation. Even with the Opportunity Scholarship, going to school carries expenses usually while working in low-paying jobs. The college dropouts in our state are in real economic danger if they do not finish with a credential. They need more support while in school.
Therefore, it is time do away with the myth of the privileged college student.
Sarita Cargas, Ph.D., is an associate professor of human rights at the University of New Mexico Honors College.
Original My View link from Santa Fe New Mexican: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/hunger-is-going-to-college-as-students-struggle/article_ebb3f3b8-e7a4-11ee-bf21-7787c3b591e4.html
Volunteer Richard Martinez loads strawberries as volunteers shuttle boxes of food for a line of cars stretching down Siler Road during the The Food Depot's drive-thru food distribution Thursday. The demand for food hasn't let up since the pandemic, a sign people are continuing to struggle to recover while facing economic pressures like high food prices and housing costs in Santa Fe. Jim Weber/The New Mexican
Santa Fe food bank still drawing long lines amid economic pressures
By Daniel J. Chacón - dchacon@sfnewmexican.comUpdated Mar 15, 2024
The line of motorists stretched down Siler Road by the time Edna Reyes-Wilson showed up at The Food Depot’s drive-thru food distribution at 6:45 a.m. Thursday.
“The people that are first in line are here since 3:30, 4 o’clock in the morning,” said Reyes-Wilson, who has been volunteering at the Santa Fe-based food bank since 2018.
“A lot of them come in their pajamas,” she said as she queried drivers on the number of households they were picking up food for and the number of people in each household. “They’ve got their blankets and their pillows, but they want to be sure they can get what they can get.”
The demand for food has showed few signs of slowing since the pandemic, a signal people are continuing to struggle to recover and facing other economic pressures, from high food prices to the exorbitant cost of living in Santa Fe.
“It’s definitely not as high today as it was in 2020 but … there’s definitely some spikes that have been noticeable over the past year, and it’s higher maybe than you would expect,” said Jill Dixon, who is taking over as The Food Depot’s executive director in July.
“Some of the compounding factors that we’re seeing are certainly just persistent increased costs, particularly around food,” she said. “Ultimately, the big story there is just the story we all know but maybe don’t want to admit: The cost of living for a basic-needs budget generally exceeds peoples’ income. We know that housing costs are astronomical, but food costs have gone up approximately 22% since the previous year, so it’s pretty bleak.”
The ongoing demand for food comes as the New Mexico Human Services Department continues to grapple with a high volume of renewal applications for food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, amid an unwinding of pandemic-era benefits.
The SNAP renewals coincided with renewals of the Medicaid program, both of which were performed automatically during the pandemic. Some 500,000 New Mexicans receive SNAP benefits and about 1 million are on Medicaid.
Department spokeswoman Marina Piña said it’s taking about 30 days to process what she called SNAP emergency applications and almost two months to process the regular applications.
But relief is in sight, she said.
“We are at the very end of the Medicaid unwinding period,” she said, referring to the end of continuous Medicaid enrollment required under pandemic-era regulations. “Once we finalize that period, we’re going to start seeing a more steady workflow of processing applications.”
New Mexico has long had one of the highest rates of food insecurity, particularly among children, in the country. Feeding America’s 2023 “Map the Meal Gap” report showed a 13.5% overall food insecurity rate in the state, the seventh-highest in the country behind a handful of Southern states, and at more than 19% the second-highest rate of food insecurity among children, behind only Louisiana.
While the problem is most pronounced in rural New Mexico, even relatively urban counties like Bernalillo and Doña Ana report food insecurity rates above the national average.
The Food Depot distributes food in what the organization calls a drive-thru pantry from 7-9 a.m. every other Thursday.
During Thursday’s distribution, the organization provided food, from fresh strawberries and frozen blueberries to 5-pound sacks of potatoes and canned goods, to 604 households and a total of 3,740 individuals.
“That’s more individuals, but a few less households, than our last distribution,” Amanda Bregel, The Food Depot’s spokeswoman, wrote in an email afterward.
The steady stream of people seeking food included young and old, men and women and a smattering of drivers with license plates from the Mexican state of Chihuahua. During the 8-9 a.m. hour, many of the motorists spoke only Spanish.
Some motorists arrived in beat-up old cars with broken windshields and babies in the back seat while others drove up in luxury vehicles, including a Lexus and a shiny Humvee.
The Food Depot asks motorists only how many families they’re picking up food for and the number of people in each family. Neither identification nor proof of income are required.
“The truth is that not a single one of us has any idea who owns that car that that person is driving, whether or not it’s the person that needs the food assistance or someone who’s picking up on behalf of someone who needs help,” Dixon said. “We have no idea whether that person bought that car with cash and their circumstances changed afterwards … and it may be all they have.”
The question about people who show up in expensive cars to pick up free food, which others ask, “reveals a fundamental flaw in our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of another person,” she said.
Around Thanksgiving, Dixon said she worked at a food bank in Arizona handing out turkeys with a Spanish-speaking woman showed up in a “really sweet” Audi SUV.
“She was starting to cry, and she said, ‘Please, please know that the car is not mine,’” she said.
When the woman popped the trunk open, “there were all these bags of groceries” from a fine foods grocery store in the back. The woman, Dixon said, explained the car and groceries belonged to “la jefa,” or her boss.
“She was like, ‘She sent me to go grocery shopping for her family’s Thanksgiving stuff. Now I’m just trying to stop here so I can have groceries for my family before I go home,’ ” Dixon recalled.
Dixon said The Food Depot’s food distribution is “definitely a no-questions-asked food pantry,” though the organization does ask how many people are in a household and how many households the driver is picking food up for as part of its data collection.
“We only allow one car to pick up for two households,” she said. “It’s very, very common for a household to be picking up for a neighbor, a parent, a friend, another family member.”
The drive-thru distribution now held at the organization’s warehouse off Siler Road was started by a now-defunct group called Feeding Santa Fe.
“It was an organization that gave away about 150 uniform parcels of food, so everybody got two cans of this, two cans of that, a thing of pasta, a thing of pasta sauce and most of that food was provided by The Food Depot, but they also did some purchasing and did their own fundraising,” Dixon said. “That was an organization that’s a really good example of organizations that didn’t survive the pandemic due to the average age of their volunteers and just an inability to scale to meet the growing demand.”
Since then, demand for food has ebbed and flowed, but the constant is that it remains steady.
During the pandemic, The Food Depot served between 700 and 900 households during distribution days, though there were a couple of “peak moments” where it served 1,000 households. The number dropped in 2021 but started rise in 2022, which correlated with an increase in food prices, Dixon said.
“We’re sitting pretty solidly [at] about 600 households per distribution now, which is unbelievably higher than it ever was for Feeding Santa Fe,” she said.
Deja Thomas, who was born and raised in Santa Fe, said she didn’t know about The Food Depot’s drive-thru pantry until she moved into the income-restricted Siler Yard apartments around December 2021 and noticed a line of people.
“My roommate and I started lining up at 6 a.m.,” she said.
Thomas, 27, who was handing out food Thursday, said she started volunteering at The Food Depot to express her appreciation and help the community.
“They allow me to pick up some food, and I just drive it over with my wagon,” she said. “It’s been great. It’s been really helpful to supplement how much food we have because we’re both low-income, and we can still afford some groceries, but this really helps, especially with staples.”
Original Article Link: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/santa-fe-food-bank-still-drawing-long-lines-amid-economic-pressures/article_24d5cd0a-e18e-11ee-a320-0b2215e77609.html
Volunteer Richard Martinez loads strawberries as volunteers shuttle boxes of food for a line of cars stretching down Siler Road during the The Food Depot's drive-thru food distribution Thursday. The demand for food hasn't let up since the pandemic, a sign people are continuing to struggle to recover while facing economic pressures like high food prices and housing costs in Santa Fe. Jim Weber/The New Mexican
The Food Depot Announces Jill Dixon to Serve as Executive Director
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 11, 2024
SANTA FE— The Food Depot’s Board of Directors announced today that Jill Dixon will succeed Sherry Hooper as the Executive Director of The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s Food Bank. Dixon, who has been with the food bank since 2012, will assume the lead role, effective July 1, 2024.
Dixon currently serves as the Deputy Director of The Food Depot, a leadership role she has held since 2021. Len Rand, president of The Food Depot’s Board of Directors, expressed enthusiasm about the transition, stating, “We are pleased to announce this appointment. Jill brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to the communities we serve. She has been dedicated to The Food Depot for over a decade and has the full support of the board in her new role.”
Dixon joined The Food Depot in 2012 as the organization’s first Development Director. One of her early successes was the “Building Hope” capital campaign for the warehouse in Santa Fe. Her continuous focus on providing healthy food and vital resources to families in New Mexico resulted in the development of many of The Food Depot’s innovative programs, all of which impact thousands of lives each day. Dixon oversaw the creation of multiple key programs, including The Food Depot’s Casita de Comida, Resource Navigation, Diaper Depot, Food 4 Pets, and The Food Mobile. As Deputy Director, she also guided the nonprofit through the development of its current strategic plan, which will lead The Food Depot through 2025.
“I am so grateful for Jill’s leadership and the many wonderful years we have worked together,” says Sherry Hooper, the current Executive Director. “I know The Food Depot’s future is in capable hands.”
“I would like to thank the board of directors for this opportunity,” says Dixon. “The Food Depot holds such a pivotal role in this community. It is an honor to serve our communities in such a profound way. I look forward to continuing to build on the initiatives and partnerships Sherry Hooper and I started together.”
Dixon will succeed Sherry Hooper, The Food Depot’s longtime Executive Director, who assumed the leadership role in 2001. Hooper’s final day at The Food Depot is June 30, 2024.
