Although New Mexico has been investing heavily in fighting food insecurity in recent years, experts told lawmakers Wednesday demand for food assistance is on the rise. Federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and related efforts have strained local resources and put pressure on food banks.
New Mexico has the highest rate of SNAP use in the country, with one of five New Mexicans relying on the program to put food on the table. But Katy Anderson with Roadrunner Food Bank says since President Trump signed his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” participation has fallen off.
“Twenty-five thousand New Mexicans – 13,000 of those are children – have lost their SNAP benefits,” she said.
Anderson told members of the interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee that means people have been relying more on foodbanks.
“SNAP for a lot of the folks that we serve is a bridge for a period of time. And without that bridge,” she said, “people are going to have to find a way to get across.”
Jill Dixon, executive director of The Food Depot in Santa Fe, said that extra demand came right after federal cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) were introduced.
She said in April of 2025, New Mexico’s food banks lost over 20 truckloads of food amounting to $2 million through TEFAP cuts.
“The food banks here in New Mexico have seen between a 40 and a 60% reduction in the amount of food provided by that program. At the same time,” Dixon said, “we're seeing a 40 to 60% increase in demand for assistance, based primarily around affordability issues and inflation.”
Part of the problem, she said, is SNAP can provide nine meals for every one provided by the food bank network, so they end up working harder to support the same amount of people.
Dixon said the state’s investments in food security over the last four years have helped the food banks keep pace with what they've lost.
Legislative Finance Committee analyst Ruby Ann Esquibel said the state approved $30 million
in what’s commonly called GRO funding, which stands for “government results and opportunities.” The first share of $10 million was spent in its entirety, with only a single dollar and one penny left over.
Dixon said there are now more than 600 food bank locations across the state and in every county. That’s more than 100 additional locations over last year and she credits that directly to the GRO funding.
“There's more places being served. Food is reaching more previously unserved and underserved communities than ever before,” she said.
Dixon said the association of food banks will put together an estimate for how much funding they will need going forward to continue their work.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
