The Interfaith Hunger Coalition and the Roadrunner Coalition to End Hunger hosted a virtual commemoration of World Food Day on Wednesday, October 16, 12:30-2:00 p.m.
We heard from five communities in different corners of the state. Food providers in each location highlighted innovative ways in which their organizations are handling an increase in demand for food. We created two videos from the Zoom recording. We also offer comments from the videos (taken from the transcript) Some of the comments are paraphrased to make them more concise.
In the second video, we learned about challenges and solutions in Catron County (JoAnn Young); Hagerman in southeastern New Mexico (LeeAnn Sandoval of Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry); Las Cruces and Doña Ana County (Lorenzo Alba of Casa de Peregrinos); and Taos (Cami Hartman of UNM Taos and Rev. Cheri Lyon of Shared Table).
JoAnn Young
Community Members Help Each Other
Catron County spans 7,000 square miles, with a population of about 3,500. There are five small communities Quemado, Datil, Luna, Glenwood, and Reserve. Ms. Young oversees Roadrunner food distributions in Reserve.
"Reserve itself serves about 100 families every month...The operation in reserve is not a pantry we just have a monthly distribution we're a mobile we're considered a mobile pantry so we don't have any place to store food...So we are very blessed to be such a small community and we help each other.
We do well with our feeding efforts for seniors: our real challenge is people under 50, a lot of them who fall through the cracks. But we just found out recently that students in Quemado and Reserve started a food closet in their school. Now Reserves, has free breakfast and free lunches for the kids. But of course, that's just Monday through Thursday. So they have gotten non-perishables and they send it home with the kids so they can have something to eat over the weekend."
LeaAnn Sandoval
A Challenge to Reach People in Outlying Areas
Loaves and Fishes operates an all-volunteer food pantry open to anyone in need living in Dexter, Hagerman, Midway, or Lake Arthur. Chavez County ranks 23rd among New Mexico's 33 counties for food insecurity."
"The community where our pantry is located has a school that now gives out food from Roadrunner once a week. We also have a center where seniors are fed daily, and they have to buy their meals, but they also receive food from our pantries...
Our biggest challenge right now is transportation for the people that in the outer reaches of our area, it's an agricultural area, lots of ranching, farming, and sometimes they just can't get into the pantry because they don't have transportation. So that's one of our biggest challenges right now is how to get how to get the food to them We also have a challenge with reaching, we reach a lot of seniors, a lot of disabled people, families with a lot of children..."
Lorenzo Alba
'Hunger Strike' Raises Funds, Awareness
Casa de Peregrinos serves thousands of families each year in 23 separate locations in Southern New Mexico.
"How do you reach everybody? It's a difficult thing that we do in New Mexico, in a very rural state, so we've taken a different approach here. We feel very strongly about adding infrastructure, and that is what we are doing. We added a food pantry in the Hatch area, and in the last week, we've broken ground on two pantries in the southern part of the county. One in Chaparral which is already fully funded and by this time next year we should be having ribbon-cutting. And then one in Sunland Park and that one is still a little bit off we're still about a million dollars off from getting a complete funded completely funded but we should have that ready to go fully funded after this legislative session and really moving quickly.
:Because we opened a new facility in Las Cruces last year for the fiscal year, we were able to offer more services to this community, which is really incredible. Because of that, our numbers (increased) year over year, We're about 24% up. I think it's not just the demand and the need, but also that we're giving food out different ways.
We do an annual hunger strike (Sept. 26-27 this year), which raises money for us, where we actually do a 24-hour fast, and basically in solidarity with our friends that are going through food insecurity. In the six years that we've been doing this, it's probably raised about $600,000 or $700,000. So very proud of the initiative. Even if we didn't raise a dime, just the fact that we actually were there with our clients for 24 is amazing"
Rev. Cheri Lyon
Utility Trucks Help Deliver Food Boxes
"Shared Table serves about 500 households twice a month and has a home delivery program. A challenge for some communities is being able to have year-round drivers for, we do about 60 food boxes for home deliveries. And so we are blessed with the local electric utility company. Kit Carson Electric Cooperative actually helped us start by funding the home delivery program and by providing drivers. And the great news about that is those utility trucks can go anywhere, anytime. And it's really connected us as with an additional partner that was unlikely. So utility companies may be a source of support. They have a lot of heart for the community. A huge shout out to the Food Depot for all their support. They are our partner in Central and Northern New Mexico."
Cami Hartman
'Mini Grocery Store' helps Address Campus Hunger
"In 2021, learned that over a third of our students, so one out of three students was experiencing food insecurity and at the time we didn't have any food services on campus. So we got a little support from our student government at the time to open a small cupboard outside under a portal that had some canned goods and it was successful. So we really learned that we could do more and got even further support this last year to open what we now have as a, I always call it like a little mini grocery store.
And we got that support from locally based Lohr Foundation and our current student government. And they were able to buy, you know, three door glass refrigerators and a nice freezer. And because of that, we can now have fresh produce and wonderful things. And the wonderful things we've been getting are coming from El Pueblito United Methodist Church/Shared Table, who's been really generous with their support. We also have a great partnership with St. James Episcopal Church. At the end of their food distribution day, we are benefiting from all kinds of extra goodies that they didn't quite give away that day, and they tend to give us a lot. Our program is called Thrive Food and Resource Center, and so it's pretty awesome." See Slides of Study of Basic Needs Gap at UNM Taos, September 2023
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