'Busier than we've ever been': Here's how Storehouse New Mexico is keeping up with food needs in Albuquerque

Last November, The Storehouse New Mexico served more than 3,000 households for the first time in its 50-year history. The number of people getting food from the organization has continued to increase, reaching nearly 4,000 households in August.

“We are busier than we’ve ever been,” said Kevin Cochran, program manager at what is one of the state’s largest food pantries.

With the increase in demand, The Storehouse has had to purchase a new delivery truck and hire someone to drive it, and rely more heavily on partners and the community to secure enough food to feed everyone who comes through its doors.

Here’s how the Albuquerque organization is doing it.

Anyone who visits The Storehouse at 106 Broadway SE, just south of Central, receives a shopping cart full of goods weighing from 50 to 70 pounds. The cart can include breads, meats, vegetables, fruits and canned goods. There are no income or status requirements to qualify for the food.

“Everybody who comes in gets food,” Cochran said.

Cochran, who has been with the food pantry for five years, said the bulk of the food comes from food-rescue partnerships with stores around Albuquerque, donations from the community and federal food surplus received from The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP.

The Storehouse rescues food from roughly 30 stores, which give them their extra salads, meats, vegetables and fruit. To help supplement this supply, The Storehouse also receives TEFAP items from Roadrunner Food Bank.

TEFAP allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to purchase surplus meals and food items from the U.S. agriculture industry and provide those goods to food distribution entities in all 50 states.

In addition to the federal assistance and food rescue, The Storehouse regularly accepts both monetary and food donations from the community. Money helps fill in the gaps when certain food items aren’t available.

For every dollar The Storehouse receives, it can purchase five meals, which equates to roughly 19 cents per meal. A meal is defined as 1¼ pounds of food.

“We spent the money sometimes to get a pallet of pasta or turkey,” Cochran explained. “We cast a wide net for any sources of food.”

Cochran is proud that in its multi-decades history, The Storehouse has yet to ever run out of food or turn someone in need away.

“We’ve never said, ‘Nope, we’re out of food’ and closed up shop,” he said. “We serve everybody.”

The food pantry’s approach to serving its community has changed with the times. Two years ago, The Storehouse began providing food to people’s doorsteps via DoorDash.

Every Thursday is delivery day. On that day, a group of volunteers will be hard at work, packing boxes full of canned and dried goods, meats and even a cake or muffins.

After these boxes are filled and sealed, they are passed off to DoorDash drivers, who drop them off at roughly 100 homes around Albuquerque.

On a recent Thursday, in the room next to where the deliveries are being packed, volunteer Mary Vasquez — a cook for 30 years — was working on her own project, packing sack lunches that will be handed out to the nearby unhoused population.

“I didn’t want to go back to work (as a cook),” she said laughing. “And a friend who worked (at The Storehouse) told me about this place, and I decided to volunteer here.”

When asked what keeps her coming back, she kept her answer short and simple: “The staff who work here and the people we help.”