https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/new-mexico-agencies-food-banks-brace-for-halt-insnap-benefits/article_2e02aade-b867-4c73-b3fa-7224c537cb60.html
New Mexico agencies, food banks brace for halt in SNAP benefits Follow Clara Bates
By Clara Bates cbates@sfnewmexican.com Oct 28, 2025 1 of 2
Food Depot drivers Aaron Rodriguez, right, and Andrew Aragon load a truck bound for food pantries in Española and Dixon Tuesday. The Santa Fe-based regional food bank is stocking up in anticipation of a federal food benefits freeze on Saturday; t organization has purchased about $400,000 in food in recent weeks — a sum that would typically last the food bank three m Jim Weber/The New Mexican
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As the federal government prepares to halt food aid this week for more than 450,000 New Mexicans and over 40 million other Americans, state officials say they’re fighting on all fronts to help fill in the gap — and food banks are gearing up for increased demand. Food subsidies under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, are set to be suspended Saturday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said. The agency said the “well has run dry” on SNAP, and it lacks funding to issue benefits amid the government shutdown that began Oct. 1. Legislative leaders in New Mexico and the Governor’s Office have been working to craft a plan designed to mitigate the effects on needy New Mexicans, state House Speaker Javier Martinez, DAlbuquerque, said in an interview Tuesday.
“I want to assure New Mexicans all across the state,” Martinez said. “... We’re going to make sure that we get you the help that you need right now. And that’s what House leadership, that’s what the Senate leadership and the governor over the last few days [have worked on] — to come up with a plan to provide that support.” Details on the state’s plan are expected to be announced Wednesday afternoon when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will hold a news conference at an Albuquerque grocery store. The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s food bank, has accelerated food purchases over the last few weeks in anticipation of a “precipitous increase in demand,” Executive Director Jill Dixon said.
“The volume we’re expecting is likely to be as large, if not larger than early days of shutdown in 2020,” she said, referring to the expected need. New Mexico is primed to be particularly hard-hit: The state has the highest per-capita participation in SNAP in the nation, with over 20% of the population relying on the program. In a news conference Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat, said officials and advocates are fighting to shield New Mexicans from the impact of SNAP suspension. “We are using Congress, the courts and our communities to push back every single possible way that we can,” she said.
AG joins lawsuit vs. USDA New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the USDA, along with Democratic attorneys general and governors from two dozen other states, arguing the federal suspension of SNAP benefits is illegal. The Trump administration has claimed it can’t legally use a contingency fund to pay for SNAP benefits, but the lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, argues there are billions of dollars “appropriated by Congress for this very purpose.” The federal suspension of SNAP benefits forces states to “explain to needy, hungry people,” the lawsuit states, “... why they will not be receiving the benefits they have been promised, despite the availability of funds and the federal government’s decisions to fund other programs during this shutdown.” SNAP benefits are federally funded and state-administered. “I will not stand by and watch our people go hungry when Congress has already appropriated billions of dollars in emergency funding to keep food on their tables,” Torrez said in a statement Tuesday. “At a time when too many are struggling with rising costs, we should be expanding access to food assistance — not undermining it.” Around 466,000 New Mexicans receive SNAP benefits each month, including over 170,000 children, according to data cited in the lawsuit.
“It is clear the federal government is making a deliberate, illegal and inhumane choice not to fund the crucial SNAP program,” Torrez’s agency, the New Mexico Department of Justice, said in a statement. A spokesperson for the USDA, in a statement issued Tuesday, blamed Senate Democrats for the SNAP suspension.
“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” the spokesperson said. “Continue to hold out for healthcare for illegals or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.” The shutdown is over a health care impasse, but not one related to undocumented immigrants. Senate Democrats have rejected stopgap spending bills until they get a deal to keep in place tax credits for low- and middle-income Americans insured under the Affordable Care Act. Without the tax credits, premiums for enrollees will spike.
House Speaker Javier Martínez presides over a House session at the Roundhouse on the second day of the special session earlier this month. "I want to assure New Mexicans all across the state," Martinez said of the expected halt in SNAP food benefits. "... We're going to make sure that we get you the help that you need right now." Michael G. Seamans/New Mexican file photo
‘Leave no stone unturned’ Martinez, the House speaker, said the state is doing all it can to help. “We are going to leave no stone unturned over the next few weeks to figure out how to get people more relief and more immediate relief if need be,” he said. But, he added, “no state can sustain this for the long term. And the fact that they are putting a world of hurt on single moms, on low-income seniors, on veterans is, quite frankly, just despicable.” Martinez’s message to New Mexicans, he said, is “first and foremost, we, your state Legislature, are not going to let you down.”
Louise Lasley sorts through apples from a grocery donation Tuesday as The Food Depot stocks up in anticipation of a federal food benefits freeze Saturday. Jim Weber/The New Mexican
He added, “And whatever is in our power, we’re going to do to ensure that our people have access to health care and food and other basic necessities. At the same time, Trump and congressional Republicans have to get their act together.” The state would need over $80 million to fund the monthly SNAP allocation for November. The Legislature in a special session earlier this month approved $8 million for food banks. State officials have said they’re working to speed up the disbursal of that funding — which was designed not for the government shutdown but for longer-term cuts to SNAP arising from the federal budget reconciliation bill Trump signed into law in July. A spokesperson for the Governor’s Office earlier this week said it is working with the Health Care Authority, which administers the program, and “exploring our options.” The Republican Party of New Mexico blamed Democrats for the shutdown last week.
“Senate Democrats are blatantly turning their backs on Americans in their ongoing quest to implement their far left, radical agenda,” state GOP Chair Amy Barela said in a statement. “The hardworking people of New Mexico deserve so much better from their leaders than the shameless political theater going on right now.”
Suspension of the safety net
Dixon, of The Food Depot, said those looking to help should consider financial contributions to food banks, which allow them to buy food in bulk at a discount. The Food Depot is also increasing volunteer shifts. Jason Riggs, the advocacy and public policy director for Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, said the food pantry already has seen an increase in people visiting in recent weeks. He called the impending SNAP loss a “public health crisis.” “We are responding to our community’s needs, but I think it’s unrealistic to expect charities to just fill this huge gap,” Riggs said. “This is an important government safety net — is the first line of defense against hunger.” In previous shutdowns, food banks could count on SNAP to remain, he said, which has never before been suspended in this way.
“During the recession and COVID 19, we had a fully functioning SNAP program,” he said, which was “doing what it was designed to do: provide a huge safety net that expands when the economy is in trouble.” “This time, we don’t have a SNAP program. That’s the cause of the crisis,” Riggs said.
Mass v. USDA et al..pdf Updated Oct 28, 2025
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Clara Bates