A new report says 1 in 4 kids are at risk of hunger in New Mexico. The meal gap grew by 6 million from last year’s report, resulting in a lack of over 66 million meals statewide.
Katy Anderson, vice president of strategy partnerships and advocacy at Roadrunner Food Bank said hunger is increasing nationally, but New Mexico’s challenges stem from many of the SNAP benefits that expired in 2023 once the COVID-19 emergency declaration was lifted.
“Within our state we have a lot of people that benefit from SNAP and a lot of people had access to funds to help buy groceries,” said Anderson. “So when those larger amounts went away we saw that impact people on the ground pretty significantly”.
The report also shows that the state’s average cost-per-meal is $3.32 leaving a food budget shortfall for people at risk of food insecurity at more than $220 billion.
As congress finalizes President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” more families will see their SNAP benefits at risk. The proposed cut for the program is around $300 billion over the next 9 years. It’s estimated that 7 million people, which includes 2 million children nationwide, will lose or have benefits cut significantly.
That’s coupled with another federal funding cut of $1 billion to programs used by food banks to buy locally sourced food. The U.S. The Department of Agriculture's Emergency Food Assistance Program or TEFAP was cut by about 30%, and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which empowers local food banks to buy from local producers, was eliminated.
These decisions have the potential to seriously impact the hunger relief industry at large,which means a significant drop to the food banks,” said Anderson. “We’ll lose out on somewhere between 6 to 8 million pounds of food coming into the state of New Mexico.”
The study also found that food insecurity can worsen in rural counties like Catron County with an almost 40% rate of food insecurity and Mckinley County coming in at around 34%.
However, the vast majority of Roadrunner’s operations actually come from individual donations. Anderson emphasized that considering the federal loss, community outreach will remain at the forefront of feeding New Mexicans in need.
This coverage is made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners.
