Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico

Roadrunner Food Bank (rrfb) distributes Food to over 70,000 people every week through a network of approximately 360 emergency Food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and four regional Food banks. For every 1 donation, rrfb may distribute up to five meals. Rrfb provided over 28.7 million meals during fiscal year 2022, including more than 5.8 million meals through its mobile Food pantry. The mobile Food pantry is a farmers' market style distribution that delivers nutritious and much needed Food directly to hungry people in need. The mobile Food pantry delivers to areas where individuals may not have access to Food support programs or where Food pantries or feeding programs do not exist. In addition, rrfb sponsors other direct-service programs including disaster relief, snap application assistance, an americorps program (seedcorps), a data collection and analysis program (service insights), and referrals. Rrfb is seeing heightened demand across New Mexico, not only from people living with Food insecurity every day, but also from families that are newly in need. Due to inflation driving up the cost of basic necessities, rrfb continues to directly support communities where the need is highest. Starting with the pandemic, rrfb increased feeding efforts in communities where gaps existed, opening brand New Food distribution points in numerous counties around the state. Seedcorps continued to support this cause, providing over 1 million meals during fiscal year 2022. Seedcorps places members with partner agencies to increase their capacity, provide nutrition education and resource support directly to clients. Seedcorps members also address need in underserved communities by running important gap distributions, ensuring those most vulnerable have access to healthy, nutritious Food.

Rrfb's childhood hunger initiative (chi) was launched in fiscal year 2015. Chi is a Food distribution strategy tailored specifically to the needs of participating school sites across New Mexico. The selected participating schools serve children and their families through comprehensive services that may include mobile Food pantries, school-site Food pantries, and backpack programs (which provide supplemental Food provisions to Food insecure children on weekends) in combined and/or complementary ways. Chi took place in 82 schools during fiscal year 2022, and rrfb continually seeks to expand the program as New funding becomes available. Rrfb's chi provided over 2.5 million meals during fiscal year 2022 and worked with 104 school partners in areas with limited Food access.

Launched in the spring of 2015, rrfb's senior hunger initiative (shi) provides a combination of hunger-relief programs at low-income senior housing sites and senior centers, with each specific plan and structure of services determined by local leaders to meet the identified needs of Food insecure older adults in participating communities. Each shi site has the ability to receive a mobile Food pantry to their location once a month, and these distributions offer a variety of Food that supports the distinctive nutritional needs of older adults. Each site also has the opportunity to establish a fixed Food pantry at their location, and this permanent pantry provides a consistent and ongoing source of Food assistance for seniors struggling with hunger. Rrfb supports 16 shi sites and continually seeks to expand the program as New funding becomes available. Rrfb's shi provided over 590,000 meals during fiscal year 2022.

Health and wellness initiatives (hwi) include the healthy foods markets (hfm) and the healthy Food center (hfc) located on rrfb premises. The hfc is an on-site medical referral Food pantry focusing on Food insecurity and a nutrition-related chronic health condition. The healthy foods markets bring much needed produce to clients at the health care clinic. Distributions of fresh fruits and vegetables take place daily at the hfc and every other week or weekly at the hfm. During fiscal year 2022, the hwi served 269 unique households, distributed over 570,000 meals, and filled over 1,230 referrals.