Sunland Park secures funds for regional food pantry

A hard week for southern New Mexico’s largest food pantry ended with some good news from the city of Sunland Park and a glimmer of potential hope from Washington.

Sunland Park announced Thursday it had received a state grant of nearly $720,000 in gap funding to build a regional, city-owned food pantry to be operated by Casa de Peregrinos under lease. The award clears construction to begin within 45 days and to be completed next fall, according to city officials.

“With current uncertainty around SNAP benefits, this project couldn’t be timelier,” City Manager Mario Juarez Infante said in a news release announcing the grant.

State and local capital outlay had previously raised $3.75 million for the project, with the grant from the state Department of Finance and Administration bringing the project budget to the finish line.

The city said the facility will be a hub for food distribution serving the region with indoor and drive-through distributions.

Casa de Peregrinos operates a large facility in Las Cruces, mobile food pantries and a small distribution center in Hatch. In 2024, it distributed a reported 5.1 million pounds of food.

On Monday, the line of people in need of food wrapped the Las Cruces campus.

It was the first weekday since the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, lapsed on Nov. 1 for roughly 42 million Americans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture pointed to the ongoing federal government shutdown as the cause, although the program was funded during previous shutdowns.

Last month, the USDA told states it would not use contingency funds to cover benefits.

On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the USDA to pay November benefits in full immediately. The Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling, although the USDA said on Friday it was preparing to comply and had previously committed to funding at least a portion of benefits for the month.

In New Mexico, the state with the highest SNAP participation per capita, the cutoff affects approximately 460,000 people or 21% of the state population. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called lawmakers to Santa Fe for a special session on Nov. 10 to appropriate funds for food assistance, a week after authorizing $30 million to cover SNAP for 10 days.

About 20 volunteers were busy at Casa de Peregrinos last Monday, assembling shopping baskets full of produce, grains, meat and some packaged foods.

Executive Director Lorenzo Alba said the pantry aims to distribute an average of 120 pounds of food to households, but with demand rising — he expects the monthly number of people served to reach 5,000 soon — as well as costs, the baskets may shrink.

In an interview, Alba said the nonprofit’s costs are rising as much as 23% over two years and there is an increasing need for volunteers. Yet he was upbeat: Casa de Peregrinos is in its fifth decade since being founded by a group of La Mesa residents. In recent years, it weathered the 2018 federal shutdown, the 2019 migrant crisis where it served 18,000 travelers in addition to community residents and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This community here is incredibly generous, incredibly supportive of this mission,” Alba said. “I don’t worry about us making it, because I know we’re going to make it. But the families that we serve, that’s what I’m concerned about. Will they survive?”

If SNAP funding continues to be endangered, Alba said the consequences are unpredictable. “People will struggle with mental health, with their physical health. This could turn into something bigger.”

As of Friday afternoon, the shutdown continued, but with the USDA signaling it would restart at least some food assistance and the promise of breaking ground soon on the Sunland Park pantry.

“We are working hard to uphold the legacy of the people who founded this place, nearly 50 years, and continue serving people with the utmost dignity,” Alba said.