Study: New Mexico ranks 4th in the nation for childhood hunger
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A recent study shows children in New Mexico are more at risk of hunger than almost anywhere else in the country. Roadrunner Food Bank said they are doing all they can, but are worried about potential federal funding cuts that help put food on tables.
According to Feeding America's 2025 Map the Meal Gap national study, New Mexico places 4th in the nation for childhood hunger. Roadrunner Food Bank said the data is similar to years past. According to the study, 1 in 6 people in the state, and 1 in 4 children, are food insecure. 'There is plenty of food in this country. There is plenty of food in this state. There is plenty of food to feed everyone who needs it. It is access that is the problem,' said Communications Manager for Roadrunner Food Bank Jimmy Himes-Ryann.
Story continues below
Trending: Rio Rancho High baseball player accused of urinating in water jug no longer faces charges
News: VIDEO: Albuquerque man accused of killing 14 dogs denies accusations
Environment: Researcher explains why earthquakes are rattling parts of New Mexico
Access is what Roadrunner is working to improve. The food bank worries about potential cuts to SNAP benefits. That's why they were in D.C. on Wednesday, testifying at a hearing to discuss SNAP benefits, raising concerns about potentially shifting the burden of paying for SNAP onto the states. The food bank worries about the potential need for more food bank services if fewer families have access to SNAP.
'Drastic cuts and changes to SNAP will cause hunger to grow at a exponential rate,' said Vice President of Strategy, Partnerships, and Advocacy at Roadrunner Food Bank Katy Anderson at the hearing. 'It would mean more than tripling our current food distribution output simply to ensure comparable access to what is available today.'
Roadrunner Food Bank said their services are especially important right now as children are on summer break and may be missing out on the only meal they depend on during the school day. 'The state of New Mexico provides around 300,000 meals to students who go to public schools in the state. The need in the summer is exceptionally high because a lot of students are getting that third meal at school exclusively,' said Himes-Ryann.
According to the study, the counties with the highest rates of childhood food insecurity include Catron, McKinley, and Luna.
To learn more about volunteering or donating, click this link.
The KRQE Cares Food for Kids program also has donation bins at Smith's stores in the metro, where community members can drop off non-perishables, diapers, and more throughout the summer.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' Would Slash Medicare & SNAP: 3 Moves Retirees Should Make Now
President Donald Trump's 'one big beautiful bill' has passed in the House and is now awaiting Senate approval. If passed, Trump's signature bill would extend the tax cuts granted by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and add additional tax cuts. While this might be welcome news to many, the bill also includes changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could threaten seniors' access to these programs. Find Out: Read Next: 'The 'one big beautiful bill' passed by the House of Representatives, if it were passed into law today, would cut Medicaid and SNAP by a combined $1 trillion,' said Chris Orestis, president of Retirement Genius. 'In addition, because of the increase to federal debt of as much as $5 trillion, the bill would trigger an automatic reduction in Medicare funding of $500 billion,' he continued. 'This would represent the largest cut to social services and health insurance for the poor, disabled, children and the elderly in U.S. history.' Here's a look at the changes retirees can make now to secure care and avoid benefit disruptions if the bill were to pass. Before changes go into effect, check with your healthcare providers to ensure there won't be any interruption to your care if there are cuts to Medicaid. 'Check with your healthcare provider to see if they might cut back on services or cease accepting Medicaid-funded patients, and contact any nursing home where you or a loved one may reside to find out if they will be reducing the number of patients they can support — or even [if they are] possibly planning to close,' Orestis said. Knowing this ahead of time will allow you to find alternative care providers before it's too late. Learn More: If you are reliant on SNAP, start searching for alternatives that may be able to provide food assistance in the event your benefits are reduced or cut. 'Make sure you know where there are local support services through community or faith-based organizations to replace lost access through SNAP,' Orestis said. Many retirees plan to 'spend down' their savings so that they qualify for Medicaid to pay for their long-term care. However, this may no longer be a viable option. 'If you are considering going onto Medicaid for long-term care and are preparing to engage the 'spend down' process to impoverish yourself and get below the poverty level to qualify, you may want to reconsider that strategy, and instead look to leverage private pay resources to pay for your care,' Orestis said. 'If you are on Medicaid, you will primarily be reliant on nursing homes for your care, and their ability to withstand these cuts will be very challenging and up in the air,' he continued. 'If you are private pay, you are in control and can decide where and when you will receive care, such as at home or an assisted living community not funded by Medicaid.' Strategies to stay private pay for long-term care would include long-term care insurance, annuities, a life insurance settlement, a reverse mortgage or VA benefits. Editor's note on political coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on More From GOBankingRates 9 Downsizing Tips for the Middle Class To Save on Monthly Expenses This article originally appeared on Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Would Slash Medicare & SNAP: 3 Moves Retirees Should Make Now Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Problems proliferate in Senate for Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
Problems are multiplying for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and other Senate negotiators in their bid to pass legislation to enact President Trump's agenda by July 4. Some Republican senators are barraging leadership with concerns about spending cuts for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), while budget hawks are demanding more deficit reduction and railing against a House compromise to lift the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. The latest headache for Thune and other Senate negotiators is a proposal being pushed by fiscal conservatives to root out more than $200 billion in what they're calling waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare — a controversial prospect giving the program's popularity. There are also differences between senators and the Trump White House about making permanent corporate tax cuts, such as 100 percent bonus depreciation for short-term investments and immediate expensing for research and development. Senate Republicans control 53 seats and can only afford three defections on Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he will vote 'no' because it includes language to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. And Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says he's a 'hard no' on the House-passed bill because it doesn't do enough to bring the nation back to a pre-pandemic level of spending. Here are the issues that threaten to derail the Senate bill. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are threatening to vote against the bill if it reduces Medicaid benefits to constituents, and they have yet to see what language the Senate Finance Committee will roll out on the issue. Senate and House GOP leaders insist the legislation won't cut Medicaid benefits, but the Congressional Budget Office released a report Wednesday projecting 10.9 million Americans will lose health insurance if the bill passes due to changes to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage. 'I hope not benefit cuts, that's my bottom line,' Hawley said Thursday afternoon. GOP senators have raised concerns about proposals to limit states' ability to use health care provider taxes to collect more federal Medicaid funding and to require people earning between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level to pay higher co-pays for Medical services. Several Senate Republicans are also raising concerns over a projected $267 billion in spending cuts to the SNAP, including Collins and Moran. The Senate Agriculture Committee is hoping to roll out text for its portion of the budget reconciliation bill next week but Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.) says the issue remains unresolved. 'We're still working on it,' Boozman told The Hill, adding, 'I wish it was' resolved.' Collins says she's concerned about language in the bill that would shift many of the burdens of administering the programs onto the states and penalize those states that have older systems for monitoring benefits. A growing number of Republicans are joining budget hawk Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) call for more spending cuts in the bill, which Republicans project will reduce spending by roughly $1.6 trillion over the next decade. GOP senators, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Budget Committee, are calling for bigger cuts. 'I think the bill needs to be more fiscally responsible,' he told reporters Thursday afternoon. Some Republicans are now looking at a proposal to root out 'waste, fraud and abuse' in the Medicare Advantage program and are rallying around a proposal sponsored by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to crack down on insurance companies 'upcoding' diagnoses to collect more Medicare reimbursement money. But the idea is dividing GOP senators. Hawley on Thursday said it would be 'insane' to start cutting Medicare, even though proponents of Cassidy's bill say it would be strictly targeted to waste, fraud and abuse and note that Democrats such as Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) support it. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, are digging in their heels over language in the House-passed bill to auction off government-owned spectrum, which they fear could impede the Defense Department's use of those frequencies for radar and communications. Rounds said the House language is a 'deal breaker' and urging that negotiators add language in the bill to protect spectrum frequencies used by the Pentagon for as long as the auction period lasts. 'It has to be modified,' he said. 'They've indicated that they would protect the spectrum [for defense] for the first round of auction items but one day after [the first round of auction] it's not protected,' he said. 'If they're serious about protecting that particular part of the spectrum, they just simply protect it until the auction authority expires in 2034,' he said. 'I've talked to the leadership here in the Senate.' The newest flashpoint in the negotiations is language in the bill that would restrict states' ability to regulate artificial intelligence for 10 years. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) says she would have voted against the House bill had she known that it 'strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years.' Other conservatives are flagging the provision as a major problem. 'I have a lot of concern about normal people who want to keep their job, want to protect their personal information. So we're just going to say for a decade that nobody can protect people? That's just nuts to me,' Hawley told reporters Thursday. Senate Republicans and Trump White House officials disagree over making corporate tax breaks, such as bonus depreciation and research and development expensing, permanent. The House bill phases out some of the most popular corporate tax cuts after 2029, and White House officials see an advantage in letting them expire after Trump's term in office, say GOP senators familiar with the negotiations. Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee made a pitch to Trump and his economic team at the White House Thursday to make the business tax proposals permanent, but the issue remains unresolved. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said that members of the Finance panel expressed their desire to make those tax provisions permanent, but he's not sure they moved the needle with Trump. 'I'm not convinced that we moved the needle. I think he certainly realizes how important it is to us, and I think he will go back and revisit it with his people,' he said. Republican senators say they're going to rewrite the deal Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reached with House Republicans from New York, New Jersey, and other high-cost Blue States to raise the cap on SALT deductions from $10,000 to $40,000 for households earning up to $500,000 a year. The House-crafted SALT deal is projected to cost $350 billion over 10 years, and Republican senators aren't happy about it. GOP senators believe they can lower the cap somewhere between $10,000 and $40,000 — or find another way to substantially reduce the cost of the provision — and still get the bill through the House. 'It is too high,' Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) of the $40,000 cap on SALT deductions. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is pushing for deficit reduction in the bill, called the SALT compromise a giveaway to 'an exceptionally wealthy, exceptionally small group of really high-income earners from a small handful of very highly taxed states.' 'We're subsidizing those states that impose high taxes,' he said. He said an 'overwhelming share of Republican senators' don't support the $40,000 cap level. 'There's a lot of support for setting that back down to some lower number, perhaps back down to $10,000,' Lee noted. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has warned Senate Republicans that they risk imperiling passage of the bill if they blow up the SALT deal. If the Senate modifies the legislation, it would need to pass the House again before heading to Trump's desk. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
4 hours ago
Pope meets with child protection advisory board as survivors call for zero tolerance of abuse
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Leo XIV met with members of the Vatican's child protection advisory commission on Thursday for the first time amid questions about his past handling of clergy sex abuse cases and demands from survivors that he enact a true policy of zero tolerance for abuse across the Catholic Church. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is made up of religious and lay experts in fighting abuse as well as survivors, called the hourlong audience a 'significant moment of reflection, dialogue, and renewal of the church's unwavering commitment to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people.' The group said it updated history's first American pope on its activities, including an initiative to help church communities in poorer parts of the world prevent abuse and care for victims. The Vatican did not provide the text of Leo's remarks or make the audio of the audience available to reporters. Pope Francis created the commission early on in his pontificate to advise the church on best practices and placed a trusted official, Boston's then-archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, in charge. But as the abuse scandal spread globally during Francis' 12-year pontificate, the commission lost its influence its crowning recommendation — the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predator priests — went nowhere. After many years of reform and new members, it has become a place where victims can go to be heard and bishops can get advice on crafting guidelines to fight abuse. O'Malley turned 80 last year and retired as archbishop of Boston, but he remains president of the commission and headed the delegation meeting with Leo in the Apostolic Palace. It has often fallen to O'Malley to speak out on egregious cases that have arrived at the Vatican, including one that remains on Leo's desk: The fate of the ex-Jesuit artist, the Rev. Marko Rupnik, who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse over decades. After coming under criticism that a fellow Jesuit had apparently received preferential treatment, Francis in 2023 ordered the Vatican to waive the statute of limitations on the case and prosecute him canonically. But as recently as March, the Vatican still hadn't found judges to open the trial. Meanwhile, the victims are still waiting for justice and Rupnik continues to minister, with his supporters defending him and denouncing a 'media lynching' campaign against him. Leo, the Chicago-born former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has been credited by victims of helping to dismantle an abusive Catholic movement in Peru, where he served as bishop for many years. But other survivors have asked him to account for other cases while he was a superior in the Augustinian religious order, bishop in Peru and head of the Vatican's bishops' office. The main U.S. survivor group, SNAP, has also called for Leo to adopt the U.S. policy calling for any priest who has been credibly accused of abuse to be permanently removed from ministry. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
