Food distribution looking for new home

On the third Saturday of almost every month for the past five years, volunteers have filled the fellowship hall at Central Christian Church in Portales to assist in an impressive community food distribution program called The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP.

That will happen again beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday at the church at 1528 S. Main.

But after that Saturday distribution, TEFAP will be a program without a home in Portales. Organizers are on the hunt for a new space to expand and improve.

"I talk to everybody about it," said Dianna Sprague, executive director of the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico. "We have this challenge...."

Here's what has happened.

Sprague said when the distribution program started operating out of Central Christian Church, "it was supposed to be temporary."

Sprague said the Food Bank receives, stores, and distributes food, but relies on "partner agencies" to be the feet in the ground in the communities it serves in eastern New Mexico.

In Portales, those partner agencies have been the United Way of Eastern New Mexico and the Roosevelt County Ministerial Alliance.

When that partnership formed, Don Thomas was already president of the ministerial alliance and the senior pastor at Central Christian Church. He offered up his church's fellowship hall as the temporary home base for the distribution.

As temporary things sometimes do, this one quickly became permanent, even after it became apparent that it didn't exactly fit the needs of the program.

"We love our food distribution," Thomas said. "It's just not functioning here anymore. It sounds counter-intuitive, but we are shutting it down with the idea of expanding it."

The monthly Portales TEFAP currently serves 175-200 families each month, Thomas said, which equates to "maybe 800-1,000 people."

An all-volunteer crew that ranges from 40-60 people each month helps sort and bag up six to eight tons ... TONS ... of food at each distribution.

One of the problems is that because of the alphabetical distribution system, the available window for any given individual to receive food in Portales is "one 30-minute time slot a month," Thomas said. He knows that isn't working for many people who need it.

An even larger issue is space and storage, especially cold storage, on location.

"Right now, we are very limited in what we can send to Portales," Sprague said. "It has to fit on a truck, and it has to be able to hold temperature. We can't send any perishables like eggs or milk."

For example, the Food Bank received a large shipment of commodities earlier this year that included milk, cheese, and eggs, Sprague said. None of that could be shared in Portales because of the lack of cold storage space.

Sprague and Thomas have similar wish lists for what would be an ideal facility.

It needs to be large enough to accommodate a few hundred people at one time, and have a roll-up garage door, concrete floor, space for freezers and shelving, ample parking, wheelchair access, and good traffic flow.

"Bathrooms would be a great asset," Thomas added.

But, Sprague admits, "Finding all of these things together has been challenging."

And then there is cost.

"Cheap is good," Thomas said wryly. "Free is better."

Until a solution is found, Sprague wants to make sure that hungry folks in our area know that the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico does distribute food to individuals starting at 1:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at its headquarters at 2217 E. Brady Avenue in Clovis.

She knows that's not ideal either.

"They have to find a ride to get here," she said. "The line here can be an hour-long wait. Most days we run out of food by 4 p.m."

Sprague and Thomas are inviting us to help them brainstorm a good solution to a new and permanent food distribution location for Portales.

"We are united in this," Sprague said. "We need to find something more suitable."

If you know of possible locations, have some good ideas to share, and would simply like to learn more about the good work being done by Food Bank, Sprague welcomes phone calls at 575-763-6130 or emails: [email protected]

"I hate that poverty affects our community," Thomas said. "I wish we could fix it. We need to find a new way to impact lives."

Betty Williamson tips her hat to the hundreds of volunteers who have kept TEFAP alive in Portales the past five years. Reach her at:

[email protected]