The Food Depot is a nonprofit organization working to make healthy food accessible to every person in every community in New Mexico. As the food bank for New Mexico’s nine northern counties, their hunger-relief programs and nonprofit partner agencies provide food and resources to more than 40,000 New Mexicans across a 26,000 square-mile service area. Innovative food-bank programs include mobile food pantries and distributions, a no-cost grocery store, food pantries in public schools, and diaper distributions. More than 80 nonprofit partner agencies receive food and resources from this organization, including churches, transitional housing programs, soup kitchens, harm reduction programs, college campuses, shelters, and senior centers.
The Food Depot
The Food Depot fosters healthy communities by engaging a network of partners and developing solutions to create a healthy, hunger-free New Mexico.
Their dynamic hunger-relief network provides an average of 700,000 meals each month to seniors, children, and also families experiencing hunger. In FY24, they distributed 10 million pounds of food through partner agencies and programs. The Food Depot ensures client dignity while providing healthy choices. Over 50% of all food distributed is fruits and vegetables; over 20% is protein.
Apart from their mission to providing emergency food, The Food Depot is also develops holistic solutions to food insecurity. Last year, The Food Depot’s Resource Navigators connected over 1,000 people to wraparound services, supporting these individuals on their path toward permanent food security. These services included connecting clients to emergency funds, rental assistance, jobs programs, housing solutions, and their Diaper Depot program, which benefitted over 6,000 babies and their families. In collaboration with government and community partners, The Food Depot also advocates for systematic changes at all levels to help break the cycle of long-term of poverty and food insecurity.
How They Help the Community
Whether large or small, The Food Depot has a host of opportunities to help create a hunger-free future. Readers are invited to volunteer at the warehouse in Santa Fe, any number of their own food distributions in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties, or at one of their many partner agencies throughout the whole of their service area. To learn more about the extent and challenges of poverty in New Mexico, readers are encouraged to attend The Food Depot’s monthly “Making Ends Meet” class. For those interested in seeing their programs in action, watch their Emmy® nominated short film “Movement,” or take a tour of their warehouse. Anyone is always welcome to support The Food Depot’s work by becoming a business partner, sponsor, individual donor, or also by advocating for hunger-relief at the local, state, and federal level.
The Food Depot relies on individual donations to purchase food and resources for New Mexicans experiencing hunger. Ninety-two cents of every dollar go directly to hunger-relief programming. Every dollar donated to them provides four meals for people facing hunger in Northern New Mexico.
Story and Photography by The Food Depot
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