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This is Fronteras: A Changing America I'm KC Counts.

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According to the latest data from the USDA, over 18 million American households experienced food insecurity.

That's from 2024 before the passage of H.R.

one, which drastically reduced the number of households receiving SNAP benefits.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports 1.6 million people have lost food assistance benefits in the 12 states which had available data.

Half of those are children.

In New Mexico, about 18,000 people have lost benefits, including 10,000 children.

Jason Riggs, director of advocacy and public policy for Roadrunner Food Bank, and Kris Yagel, CEO of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, joined Fronteras a Changing America, to offer context on food insecurity in our region, and Jonny Coker will report for the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative, covering food assistance efforts in Ruidoso and Carlsbad.

Jason Riggs, director of advocacy and public policy for Roadrunner Food Bank.

Thanks for being with us.

Thank you.

It's good to be here.

Let's begin with just the numbers we cited.

18,000 New Mexicans, including 10,000 children, losing Snap benefits.

Are those numbers what you're seeing today?

looking at the the latest, stats from the, from the New Mexico Health Care Authority monthly report.

I, I think those numbers are a little low, actually.

but regardless, you know, we do have this huge problem in New Mexico.

We we have, you know, as you said, over 10,000 children no longer in households with Snap.

And, you know, we are definitely seeing an uptick at all of our network partners, food distribution sites.

So even going back before H.R.

one, there were federal cuts to food assistance programs.

And I know local food banks across the state were concerned early on, even before H.R.

one, can you put into context kind of what that transition has been like for folks trying to fill the gap?

you know, this was predictable and predicted, SNAP can provide nine times the amount of meals as the entire nationwide network of food banks.

it's a very, very powerful, food assistance program.

It's often called the first line of defense against against hunger in the United States, against extreme poverty.

food banks could be seen as the last line of defense, you know, SNAP is is is the dam and the flood controls food banks are the sandbags, you know, so it's it's it's really hard to just, you know, read and hear about our lines getting longer from across the state.

we have, you know, over, 400 direct partners and across state over 500, working with the other food banks.

And everybody's reporting the same thing.

Yeah, the numbers are there where they were early in the pandemic when people were out of work.

They're it's a similar crisis to the to the recession.

So for folks who are watching who may not have any experience with snap, maybe never needed it.

can you tell us a little bit about what the new requirements are and why it results in a decrease in people who qualify?

That's a good question.

So, as written in the in the one Big Beautiful Bill act, H.R.

one, these changes affect, mostly work requirements.

So, people that are able bodied adults without children, now needing to do, you know, 80 hours a month of work requirement in order to keep their SNAP.

the interesting thing is, you know, why?

If that being the case, then why are so many children affected and I am afraid I don't have a good answer for you.

I've, I've, I've, I've, I've talked with people at the state.

I've talked with other places.

I think there's a lot of misinformation.

a lot of people, they might be they might be dropping off.

Snap.

confused, thinking that perhaps, this affect these changes affect them.

So they should just quit now.

there could be a lot of fear.

There could be fear among households that are have mixed status individuals in the household.

even though you can have someone who is a non-citizen in, in your household and you can still qualify as an American citizen for SNAP.

I, I'm really speculating here, but what we do know is, is the numbers you've cited, we have a a huge drop in the people that were on SNAP.

We've talked a lot about how children have been impacted, but what can you say about seniors?

would they be typically, you know, vulnerable to falling into that group of folks who maybe just doesn't know that they still qualify?

I believe so.

So one of the rules changes was, if you, it used to be, if you were 55 or over, you didn't have to do work requirements.

If you were an able bodied, adult without dependents, which a lot of people 55 and over.

that that can be the case for them.

but now that's extended to age 64.

So they're, it's safe to say there's a lot of people in that category that, perhaps want to apply for snap now that they have to do work.

I mean, the older you get, the harder it is to do things.

it takes a lot of time and energy.

We also have a very large rural state where there's not a lot of places where you can just go and get your volunteer hours and to for your work requirements.

And, you know, and if there were jobs available, you would have already had one.

so I think it is safe to say, and historically, seniors tend to participate in SNAP the least.

there's a lot of misinformation out there.

A lot of seniors think you have to have children.

They get it confused with the town of program.

they they think it's not for them.

I and I've, you know, I come to these conclusions by talking to people.

I my job here at Roadrunner up until a couple of years ago was to help people apply for public benefits.

and I had a lot of seniors tell me I don't want to take that money from from people with children not knowing that you know, really, they're not taking anything away.

If you qualify, you can get it.

Yeah.

You mentioned, New Mexico has data and it's one of 12 states, so far that we know of that does.

the legislature convened for two special sessions to address federal cuts.

What do you think the state will need to continue to do or do more of in order to fill the gaps we're seeing?

there's a lot that will have to be done.

More of the same.

definitely solidifying some of the decisions that were made in the legislative last, the last two legislative sessions.

you know, we've been grateful that the state has provided funding to the food banks so that we can kind of meet the crisis.

Originally, that funding was intended to, you know, maybe get ahead of the curve on food insecurity in New Mexico.

but it's with the federal changes correlating with this increased need.

we also have an affordability crisis going on.

It's it's really helped us to, kind of try to meet the need.

so I think there's a lot the state's going to have to do in order to, to really take care of this.

I mean, this is going to be a continuing problem.

You mentioned the affordability crisis.

How is that impacting the types of food that New Mexicans are able to get?

A huge impact.

you know, what a lot of people don't know is that about 43% of the food that comes through our warehouse, we purchase, and there's not like a secret charity line of food products that we can get it.

We're competing with other food buyers around the country, to get the food.

So if if food is costing the average household more, it's also costing your neighborhood food bank more.

so that's that's an enormous amount of money that we're now having to put into it.

Some of the other government benefits that have been, cut back is, the TFAP government commodities program.

we're seeing less of that product coming through.

So, this affects us and on down to just fuel, just like you and I are.

You know, you fill your tank, you're seeing the difference.

You know, we have a fleet of trucks that got to deliver over 700,000 miles a year, to different places all over New Mexico.

So, you know, we're seeing a cost increase, our, our food costs between fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 26 has gone up like, 63.5%.

some of that is because we are reaching out to more areas and getting more food out there.

But a lot of it is simply the cost of gas.

And then we can get into, you know, parts for trucks and, you know, equipment and all that kind of thing.

Everything is costing more.

And it does have an effect on food banks and individuals.

Well, we will continue to watch the ripple effects of this.

Jason Riggs, director of advocacy and public policy for Roadrunner Food Bank.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Appreciate you having us on and being able to talk a little bit about what's happening in Southeast New Mexico.

Volunteers try to fill the gaps as food insecurity increases.

Jonny Coker reports for the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative.

As funding cuts to federal food programs trickle down to New Mexico communities, volunteers are feeling the strain.

Outside the senior center in Ruidoso Downs, Sergio Guerrero counts clients as they come.

He used to see about 80, but lately it's closer to 120.

Yes, there has been an increase.

You know people are they got eat.

So but this program helps provide a lot of, you know, a lot of food for our community for widows.

So we go slow downs.

And also for Mescalero, you know, have you know, it's available to anybody.

Connie Hernandez is a client that receives food from the senior center.

Her husband is 71 and has Parkinson's.

She comes to the food bank because it's the only way that rest of her budget survives.

By the time I pay all the bills, I can afford food by myself.

We have to.

We have to decide sometimes.

Are we going to get cheese or just milk?

Are we going to get eggs or are we going to get bread?

She and her husband have started forgoing health care because of their financial situation, having to choose between Parkinson's and diabetes treatments.

And yet, she doesn't qualify for food assistance.

The trick with SNAP, not everybody qualifies.

You can be maybe 2 or $3 over the poverty limit a year to qualify.

And Hernandez is situation isn't unique.

Nationally, nearly half of the people who experienced food insecurity in 2024, about 25 million people had incomes too high to qualify for Snap.

According to Feeding America's latest map, the Meal Gap Report, 150 miles southeast in Carlsbad.

The stories are familiar.

Rising cost of living leads to budget being constrained, and the demand for food assistance rises for community members like Michael Bromwich.

If further cuts hit the state, he said he would make do but wasn't so sure about the community as a whole.

I wander over and load up with what they got to give me and I, bring it on home and put it in the fridge.

Would I be okay?

Well, I'd make do.

But would the entire populace of the city or the state or the country, be okay?

a lot less okay.

That's for sure.

At Abundant Harvest Food Pantry in Carlsbad, director Angel Martinez watches his average of 130 families climb toward 150.

Whenever federal benefits tighten, anytime there's a shortage on, the, snap benefits.

we do get a lot more people coming in.

Despite the rising demand at New Mexico, his cushion the blow better than its neighbors, according to Katie Anderson, vice president of strategy, partnerships and advocacy at Roadrunner Food Bank Arizona.

That state decided to go in hard and fast with implementing all of the snap changes.

There have been estimations of 40 to 50% of the people that were on Snap in Arizona have been kicked off.

The forces pushing people toward the pantry line or stacking on top of one another.

Grocery prices are climbing, with food costing about 27% more in 2025 than in 2020, according to federal Consumer Price Index data.

Gas prices also remain volatile amid the Iran war and a wave of federal changes to food assistance is still working its way down from Washington to the folding tables, where volunteers hand out boxes.

Anderson said that the pressure is measurable in roadrunners own data.

We're seeing anywhere between, 40 to 60% increase in the number of people seeking assistance year over year.

we saw a high of 79% this past January of year over year.

Number of people at ground level.

That turbulence is felt.

Janie Bingham, who has volunteered at Abundant Harvest for a decade, sees it in what Roadrunner can send Our protein from Roadrunner has changed from frozen meats at times to just lentils and beans, which is great, but in our thinking, we really like to be able to give that.

And at times we have had to supplement.

When the trucks come up short, the gap doesn't vanish.

It moves onto the church's books or into a client's smaller box.

The paradox is the sharpest in the southeast, where Carlsbad sits atop the Permian Basin, one of the most productive oil fields in the world.

Angel Martinez has watched the money flow past his community for years.

This part of the state is not being taken care of by, resources that are being pulled out from this part of the state, but the tools to even see the problem are eroding.

In 2025, the U.S.

Department of Agriculture canceled the survey that produces official national and state food security data when the food runs short.

Martinez said the cost is immediate.

We have to scramble and sometimes we got to give less to our clients, and that's kind of sad to see somebody that's in need not receiving what we were able to give them.

Know normally reporting for the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative.

I'm Jonny Coker.

And Jonny Coker is with us now, having recently rejoined the staff at KRWG Public Media.

Welcome back.

Jonny.

Thanks, KC.

It's good to be here.

It's really nice to have you back.

Now that reporting that you were doing was for the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative, which you've been doing work for in the years since you last worked here at KRWG.

And I'd like for you to talk a little bit about kind of that organization and how they're working to fill those gaps and reporting from underserved areas.

Definitely.

Yeah.

The southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative, I mean, it is a great organization that does, you know, focus on the reporting in some of the underserved areas of southern New Mexico.

shout out to Diana Alba-Soular she's, you know, the editor of, you know, she runs the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative.

But, you know, in a time where journalism is becoming fewer and further between, especially for smaller markets like Carlsbad, like Ruidoso like Cloudcroft, like Roswell.

I mean, of course, there are some media outlets and there are journalists in those areas, but finding original reporting and finding people to go out to those communities and have boots on the ground, you know, to tell the stories of the people there and to figure out, you know, the biggest issues facing those communities.

That's somewhere where the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative really excels in terms of telling those stories.

And, and again, finding those underserved areas not not dissimilar to the way the, you know, the public media in general, you know, also tries to find those crevices, but, you know, as their as the issues of news deserts continues to grow, you know, organizations like the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative are they are very important for, for folks and in so many ways, picking up, a lot of that slack and really funding some wonderful opportunities not only for reporters like yourself, but also for students.

Now you got, onto the ground in both Carlsbad and Water.

So to cover food insecurity and, you know, talk about news deserts and and this program, of course, is more about food deserts.

And, you know, just the difficulty with overall affordable.

And then the cuts to federal programs like Snap.

And, you know, you talk to individuals and about the struggles that they're facing, in fact, and in one clip, you had some folks who were having to make choices between food and other necessities, right?

Yeah.

I mean, and that's that's kind of the thing is that food is food is the last thing on that ladder of necessities that people can cut.

You can always cut, you know, you can't cut vacation or, you know, maybe not buy the new car or repair your car the way you would like to.

But what I really saw in my reporting is that we're finally getting to a place where people are truly kind of at their wits end.

They there's nothing left to cut except for food insecurity.

And with, you know, some of this federal legislation coming down and cuts to Snap and other federal food programs.

you know, people are people are really struggling out there and even, you know, regardless of all the cuts that the federal government is making, some of the data that I pulled up that truly surprised me was since 2020, according to the consumer Price Index, food prices are up something almost 30%.

I mean, you're getting a third less food now than you would be getting six years ago.

So that's something that has been really devastating for folks that are living on a fixed income, living on Social Security, who are right on that poverty line of, you know, are they going to end up paying for medical care or are they going to, you know, try to buy enough food for the month?

It's, you know, in all my years of reporting, it's this is a really interesting and and sad time for you know, it's people are struggling out there and it's it's it's horrible to see it really.

You know we really we really saw that in your reporting.

And you know as I know well there's a whole lot that didn't make the cut to get into what we saw.

in in your story.

And so I know you talked to, you know, many more people and you, you saw these additional stories.

one of the stories, though, that I wanted to focus on as well, was the story of those that, you know, you saw the passion those are who are trying to help, who are trying to get food to people, and the way that they feel about not being able to provide as much food, the same types of food as they did before.

Right.

And that's the thing, you know, everyone I talked to and New Mexico and, you know, we did speak to Katie Anderson at the Roadrunner Food Bank and she spoke to some folks there today.

You know, New Mexico has done a decent job compared to some of the neighboring states in terms of filling the gaps where the federal government has pulled out.

but those but those gaps still certainly do exist, and especially during that tumultuous period when the federal government was pulling out all the stops saying, hey, we're hands off here.

you know, there were significant gaps there.

And for, you know, the food pantries to find places to pick up the slack sometimes it just didn't happen.

And, you know, for folks that want to help their community and, you know, churches and nonprofits and, you know, senior centers, I think it really is emotionally taxing to know that your you're out there trying to help your community and trying to do this charitable thing and yet, not getting the support that you feel that it deserves.

I mean, these people want to see their communities thrive and they want to see their neighbors, you know, have enough to provide on the table.

And, for those things to be taken away from the communities.

I think it's really demoralizing to some extent.

What do you want people to know about some of those underserved communities that you've been reporting on, that maybe you didn't get to tell in your in your story, what would I want them to know?

I think, you know, everyone deserves a spot at the table.

Everyone deserves their voice to be heard.

And I think it's just important for folks to realize that, you know, we are as a society, I feel like we're only as strong as our weakest link.

And some of these, you know, underserved communities, in some ways, I think are kind of the canary in the coal mine.

Like, you know, these folks are really struggling now, but, you know, soon it could be, you know, the bigger communities, even the bigger food pantries that, you know, they have dealt with this issue.

But, I, I don't see it getting better anytime soon unless folks really start getting involved with their communities and getting involved with their local legislators and, and making their voices heard about what is happening.

I think that's that's just where we're at.

Well, Jonny, thank you so much for sharing some additional context on that report.

And thank you for coming back to KRWG.

It's great to have you back.

Yeah.

Thank you KC, I appreciate it.

I'm happy to be back.

Chris Yago, CEO of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, joins us now to talk about how El Pasoans are being impacted.

Welcome to KRWG.

Hey.

Thank you for having me.

It's so good to have you.

You know, earlier we talked about New Mexicans and how the state of New Mexico responded to cuts in federal food programs, including Snap.

It's a different picture, I think, in Texas.

Well, why don't you tell us about how your organization is being impacted and if the state has, you know, offered any help for the gaps?

Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, I think we've suffered in similar ways to cut downs in public grants.

that's our primary funding source as a nonprofit, especially in the food banking world.

We rely about 60% of our fundraising comes from public grants.

Those are down this year.

But, you know, well, what's worse or so is, is private grants.

So the combination of the two have made us, put us in a situation where we have to really be creative about how we generate revenue.

I want to talk a little bit about, some of the numbers.

Now, New Mexico is one of 12 states that provides data or 12 states so far.

Are you seeing that data sharing in El Paso and across Texas in the same way?

you know, we've had some really, significant impacts to our Snap program just at the food bank, not only from our neighbors who are getting food, but our social services department was cut over 60%.

So we, you know, we had eight at one point, and now we're down below four.

And so they provide, social services in terms of, you know, counseling and different things, other ways for people to receive food and funding and stuff like that.

And then also there was an education piece to it.

There were we provided educational and financial services and, and training and stuff like that.

That was cut entirely.

So we lost the education piece and then the actual counselor piece came down.

Now, as far as food insecurity and the impacts that snap cuts have had on our line, we have not necessarily felt the the impacts significantly yet, but we know they're coming.

we still see a good 12 to 1500, individual families a day, Tuesday through Friday at our main distribution point, which is the food bank.

and so that's pretty been pretty consistent, even though we're in this era of snap cuts.

Now, what about, the availability of food, you know, with inflation and the and the cost of groceries and especially, say, beef, which is in trouble for lots of different reasons.

Does how does that impact what foods people are able to receive?

Yeah.

So where we're located and you know, I know in New Mexico Roadrunner and can relate to this.

We're in a food desert.

So food was hard to come by before.

we are really isolated.

most food banks around the country are able to support their distribution with local agriculture.

In fact, upwards of 95% might come, from within a 50 mile radius of their location.

It's the opposite for us.

We receive less than 2% of our food within that, 50 to 100 mile radius.

So that means we have to have a fleet where we go out and get food around the country.

and not just quick distances, either, as we go all the way to Fort Worth, you know, which is an eight, nine hour drive from our location.

We go out to Nogales and Arizona.

we go coast to coast, LA, within the Atlanta this year.

We've been all around.

protein is always been has always been hard for us to come by.

We've had to resort, mainly to vegetarian sources of protein, like lentils and things of that nature.

Peas.

and then we get the occasional, frozen foods that may be, in the form of fish or something like that.

and then dairy.

man, as far as animal proteins, it's a challenge.

It's even more of a challenge this year.

In fact, I don't think I've seen animal protein on our line for most of the year, if at all.

You know, I wonder if I could just ask you about.

We know that, you know, diabetes is a big problem across our region.

And, you know, for those folks who live with diabetes, obviously their diet is so important.

How does that factor into the decisions that are made every day by folks at El Pasoans fighting hunger?

So in the past, we have not focused as much as we do these days on nutritional diversity.

And so, would that would mean is we would get a lot of loads because that's all we could get at the time.

And, and we would get a lot of those that didn't miss that necessarily serve this population as well as it could.

So one of my guidelines, I have a brand new leadership team.

One of my guidelines a year ago was let's not worry so much about quality.

Let's really focus on nutritional diversity.

We have a population that needs it.

Our people deserve it.

So let's try to do our best and even though our poundage is off going down, that's not a great metric to measure the distribution quality that we've had.

Our pounders have gone down, but the nutritional diversity has really increased.

And so I'm really proud of my operations team and my, my food source for for getting these diverse foods.

We always typically have a good amount of produce, in fact, during the summer months and 60%, we have a good amount of grains quality grains, whole grains and lentils and things of that nature.

Potatoes a lot of times.

And then we have some type of protein source, not in the quantities that I would like the categories a little, short, but we're doing our best to increase that.

Well, Chris Yagel, CEO of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate the information.

Well you're welcome, KC, thank you for having me.

And thanks to Jason Riggs, director of advocacy and public policy for Roadrunner Food Bank, and to Jonny Coker for his reporting from Ruidoso and Carlsbad.

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