‘It’s shameful’: New Mexico veterans increasingly turn to food banks after SNAP rollbacks
– Matt Mondschein, Source New Mexico
New Mexico food bank officials told lawmakers recently that federal rollbacks to food assistance programs have impacted veterans’ food security, and left food banks across the state struggling to provide more help with fewer resources.
Previously, veterans received an exemption from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s work-requirement rule. Under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed into law last year, veterans now must prove they are working, volunteering, participating in job training or looking for work for at least 80 hours a month to keep their food assistance benefits beyond three months.
“We see more veterans seeking assistance at food banks and our network of food security partners than we have in the past because they can no longer access the SNAP program,” Jill Dixon, executive director of The Food Depot, a northern New Mexico food bank, told lawmakers on the interim Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee during its Oct. 16 meeting. Veterans living in rural areas in New Mexico, she continued, have been “disproportionately affected” by the federal changes.
Roadrunner Food Bank, whose distribution area includes both Cannon and Kirtland Air Force bases, saw a “shocking” 40% to 60% increase in the number of people seeking help this year, Katy Anderson, Roadrunner’s vice president of strategy, partnerships and advocacy, told the committee.
“Folks are telling us they’re struggling to make things work with the cost of groceries, the cost of fuel,” Anderson said. She added that Roadrunner received 50% less food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Food Assistance Program compared to two years ago, while at the same time spending 70% more on fuel to transport food compared with last year.
Roadrunner stocks food for the Veteran Integration Services’ food pantry in Albuquerque, where veterans in need can receive a bag of dry and canned goods and a bag of frozen produce. Cedric Smith, who helps operate the food pantry, told Source NM that the pantry can’t provide as much as it used to for veterans.
“We barely have enough to get us from week to week,” Smith said. The pantry serves more than 70 veterans and their families weekly, and Smith estimated approximately 70% are senior citizens.
The change in SNAP requirements also has changed the clientele.
“Before it used to be a lot of homeless or low-income families. Now we get people that are working, but they’re not making enough money to buy the amount of food that their family might need,” Smith told Source NM.
New Mexico lawmakers did not mince words when presented on the status of food banks and veteran food insecurity in the state: “It’s shameful. This isn’t a partisan issue — this is a humane issue,” Sen. Gabriel Ramos (R-Silver City) said.
State Rep. Art De La Cruz (D-Albuquerque) added that the issue of veteran food insecurity in New Mexico is a “number one priority” that state lawmakers should urge New Mexico’s congressional delegation to address in Washington.
“It seems unconscionable to me that you are or have been fully employed by the federal government, serving in a capacity that we all respect and honor, yet there would be some service members and veterans that can’t afford food,” De La Cruz said.
Elizabeth Warren says New Mexico 'in the lead' in childcare accessibility while stumping for Haaland
– Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
Seven years after co-sponsoring a universal childcare bill in Congress, Elizabeth Warren and Deb Haaland teamed up again — this time to tout New Mexico’s first-of-its-kind state-subsidized program.
Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and former presidential candidate, had glowing words after touring a South Valley childcare center on Monday with Haaland, who is the final weeks of her campaign for governor.
“What you’re doing in New Mexico is an example for the rest of this country,” Warren told reporters during an impromptu news conference on the playground of the Corazoncitos Felices Academy. “I want to get the rest of the country to follow New Mexico, but I also want the federal government to be a better partner to New Mexico and all of the states.”
“New Mexico is in the lead,” she later added.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Data center Project Jupiter air quality permit hearing set for early December
– Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
After hitting several bumps along the way, a hearing over whether the New Mexico Environment Department should approve an air quality permit for the Project Jupiter data center’s proposed power source is scheduled to begin in early December.
Newly filed documents show that Hearing Officer James Browning, a retired federal judge, scheduled the hearing to begin at 9 a.m. on Dec. 7 and to “continue as necessary.” The hearing will take place at the Sunland Park Multi-Generational Center and the first day will be dedicated exclusively to public comments, according to a supplemental document filed with Browning’s scheduling order.
After that, Browning wrote that he will set aside one hour each day for public comment.
Browning filed the documents to the NMED docket on Friday afternoon after holding a public meeting with attorneys representing Project Jupiter’s developers, community members and environmental organizations.
During the meeting, Browning acknowledged the several detours the proceedings have taken so far. The previous hearing officer presiding over the case, who recused himself in August, had rescheduled the hearing after saying in a meeting that he wouldn’t. The New Mexico Supreme Court later paused the hearing while it reviewed anti-Project Jupiter legal challenges from environmental advocacy groups.
Colin Cox, a New Mexico-based attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, raised concerns about the timeline during a scheduling meeting last week.
Specifically, he pointed to figures contained in newly released NMED documents that indicate recent modeling showed the potential for Project Jupiter’s proposed power system to emit a much higher concentration of pollutants than previously forecasted. Oracle recently announced plans to cut its proposed emissions and, Cox said, experts who plan to testify at the hearing will need time to review the changes and the thousands of pages of documents in question.
“I’m sensitive to that. I’m also thinking we need to get something on the calendar,” Browning responded. “If everybody agrees that it’s not workable, then I will be receptive.”
Browning also scheduled an Oct. 26 hearing on whether to dismiss the case in light of the new pollutant figures and an Oct. 29 hearing on whether to allow discovery in the upcoming hearing.
Tornado makes landfall near Deming
– Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
A tornado made landfall approximately 8 miles east of Deming Monday evening.
The National Weather Service’s El Paso station issued a warning after local emergency managers confirmed the tornado reached the ground at 5:50 p.m. At that time, it was moving east at 25 miles per hour toward the city, with the storm covering Interstate 10 in Hidalgo and Luna counties.
Near downtown Deming, the skies darkened and hail nearly the size of golf balls and a torrential rainfall flooded streets and damaged homes and trees.
In a community where many homes do not have basements, authorities urged residents to shelter in cellars or small rooms on the lowest floors of buildings, avoiding windows and exterior walls, and to be prepared for flying debris.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Jemez Pueblo purchases Camp Rancho del Chaparral for $4.7M
– Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
A long-time Girl Scouts camp in northern New Mexico has been sold.
On Oct. 8, the Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails (GMNMT) announced that the Pueblo of Jemez purchased Camp Rancho del Chaparral for $4.7 million. The sale took place less than a year after GMNMT put the property on the market.
Rancho del Chaparral, which sits between Jemez Springs and Cuba, opened in 1969. For decades, it was a rustic, over 1,100-acre camp with sleeping units and activities like horseback riding. According to the Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails, the ranch is located on land that was part of the San Diego Land Grant.
Pueblo of Jemez Gov. John Galvin said in a phone interview the decision was made to buy the property because it sits “within our ancestral lands” and “I think it’s important to regain those lands back."
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
