by Anne Marie Whitmore

Created on: March 09, 2009

What does hunger' look like? It has a face, and it can be anyone. Men, women, children (1 in 4 children in New Mexico live in poverty), the elderly, the young adult, the disabled, the unemployed, the marginally employed all may be haunted by the specter of going hungry.

The mission of the Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico (www.rrfb.org, headquartered in Albuquerque, is quite simply to put an end to hunger in the entire state.

Founded in 1980, the Roadrunner (named after the state's flightless bird) is energetically living up to its promise. Almost 98% of their resources go towards distribution of food. Every dollar contributed helps distribute $12 worth of food. They are a central warehouse, distributing not to individuals but to 700 food pantries in seven partner regions. Through the joint efforts of many volunteers 240, 0 00 individuals were helped in 2008. Since its opening its doors, it has distributed more than 135 million pounds of food to individuals and families in need.

The Roadrunner Food Bank is non-profit, non-religious, and non-governmental. It is run strictly by private donations.

Their formula is so successful, in fact, that they have recently acquired a new and larger warehouse, one five times the size of their old location.

On several recent Saturday mornings, between shelves stacked to the ceiling with canned goods, volunteers were sorting and bagging apples, oranges and the 500 pounds of cereal donated by a major manufacturer.

The Roadrunner is the best place to volunteer for many reasons:

*It feeds the hungry as a reputable, longstanding charitable organization.

*Their hours are convenient, open from 8 am to 8 pm Tuesday thru Friday (closes at 3 pm on Monday) and 8 am to 4 pm on Saturdays.)

*You can give as much or as little of your time as you want. They only ask a minimum of two hours per month.

*Children are welcome, with proper supervision. And can be taught about hunger through hands-on experience. Kids in scout or church groups can help with one adult per 7 kids. For children under 10, they require 1 adult per 2 children.

* Roadrunner Food Bank appreciates and thanks its volunteers, since they make it all possible.

The problem of hunger in the world, our nation, and even our own state won't go away overnight. It takes dedicated, caring people to collect food, sort and deliver it to local food pantries where it is accessible to the poor, and get the message out to the people who need to know where to go.

The Roadrunner puts out a booklet of the addresses and phone numbers of more than 160 food pantries, including some soup kitchens, in the greater metro area. They also sponsor a mobile food pantry for the rural areas, for people who can't get to them. Last but not least, they also sponsor Boy Scout and Letter Carriers Food Collection Drives, and fundraising events such as a Golf tournament.

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