NM Summer Food Program 28 percent of New Mexico's Children Food Insecure

NM Summer Food Program

During the summer, children face food insecurity without the support from schools to provide meals. The Summer Food Program provides nutritious meals to children ages 1 through 18. There are more than 700 locations across New Mexico.

Find a location near you at: https://summerfoodnm.org/

New Mexico Human Services Department released their Data Book for 2021. The book is a summary of the social, economic, and health statistics of New Mexico residents. Its goal is to compare where New Mexico stands with the rest of the country, as well as where each county in the state stands with data on unemployment, Medicaid eligibility, and poverty rates.

According to a study cited in the data book from Feeding America, New Mexico ranks 34th among the rest of the United States when it comes to the number of food-insecure children with 114,180 kids.

By comparison, Texas has the most with approximately 1.6 million food-insecure children – about 14 times as many as New Mexico.

However, when the study looks at the food-insecurity rate for children – which is the number of food-insecure children compared to the state’s total child population – New Mexico ranks second with a rate of 23.8%. Louisiana is first with a rate of 24.6%.

The study also found counties in western New Mexico like Catron, McKinley, Luna, and Sierra had the highest rates of food insecurity – mostly in the mid-30s. Bernalillo County was 26th with a rate of 20.5% and Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties had the smallest with 17.7% and 13.4% respectively.

The Feeding America study used by the New Mexico Department of Human Services for their databook is based on 2018 statistics. A projection on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the child food insecurity rates is available on their website.

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