Rio Rancho and New Mexico food pantries face high holiday demand

Hunger relief groups in Rio Rancho face soaring assistance requests this holiday period. Meeting this surging community need remains a difficult task for local distribution centers. The holiday season is the busiest time of year for area pantries.

Roadrunner Food Bank is the largest hunger relief organization in the state. Dianna Sanchez is the director of integrated marketing and communications at Roadrunner. Sanchez said, “Compared to this time last year, we expect to serve 22,000 more households”

The pantry at First Baptist Church in Rio Rancho has seen client visits nearly triple. Most of their food supply comes directly from Roadrunner.

Ministry director Cindy Dunnington manages food distributions for the church.

“I can easily get in a good month, 3,000 pounds a week from Roadrunner; lately it’s been more like 1,000-1,500 pounds,” Dunnington said. “Sometimes I have to call them and say, “Do you have any frozen food?” And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t”

St. Felix Pantry has also dealt with food supply shortfalls for months. Supply levels have stabilized somewhat. The facility still faces intense operational pressure.

Jayma Reid coordinates operations for the pantry.

“I think we still need a lot of community support to help with the food drive, and to bring in the food to meet these goals,” Reid said. “If I can get like 10 more regular volunteers per month, that would be very helpful for us.”

State and community support keeps the charitable organizations operating during severe shortfalls. Sanchez said, “We have a great advocacy team, and our leadership team has been able to get support from the state when it wasn’t exactly there at the federal level.”

Social media outreach helps alert residents to ongoing supply shortfalls. Reid said, “I think its people are realizing we have a need here, where it’s getting out on social media, and our community is very generous”

All three organizations said they have never turned families away during supply shortfalls.

Food banks collect, store and distribute bulk grocery products to neighborhood food pantries. Pantries hand out meal packages directly to local families during distribution events. These charitable programs rely on public donations and community volunteers to keep shelves stocked.

Food managers across Rio Rancho said they urgently need protein-dense canned goods like soups and peanut butter.