CFLC Tackles Student Food Insecurity with Donation

ENMU-Ruidoso Foundation Receives $3,000 for Food Resource Room

The Community Foundation of Lincoln County presented ENMU-Ruidoso Foundation with a $3,000 check for the College Resource Room. The Resource Room was created in 2024 after the College received a food security grant from the New Mexico Higher Education Department, following a finding that 77% of ENMU-Ruidoso students were food insecure.

In the 2024-2025 academic year, the College received the largest food security grant in the state from the New Mexico Department of Higher Education, totaling $235,000. The purpose of the grant was for the college to provide programs, resources, and activities addressing food security for the ENMU-Ruidoso Campus community. According to the state-wide basic needs survey in 2023, 77% of Ruidoso college students were food insecure. Due to this need, the College created the ENMU-Ruidoso Campus Connections Program, which aimed to create a climate of food security on campus through several systemic avenues: education and training, resource coordination, community partnerships, as well as a physical space for students, staff, and faculty to access food and prepare meals.

Through this program, a Food Resource Room was created on campus, where students can access fresh food and prepare nutritious meals. With high rates of both food and housing insecurity in the college service area of Lincoln, providing a space where students can prepare food is critical for sustainably serving Ruidoso and the surrounding community.

Additionally, the college hosts free weekly food preparation and nutrition classes in partnership with New Mexico State University’s ICAN (Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition) program through the Lincoln County Cooperative Extension Services. The weekly cooking/nutrition class is led by Marla Hiebert-Caughron, the NMSU Extension Services ICAN Nutrition Educator. The classes are held at ENMU-Ruidoso, Demonstration Kitchen, 709 Mechem Dr., Ruidoso, on Tuesday evenings from 5-6:30 p.m.

The classes focus on high-nutrition, low-cost meal preparation. To increase program awareness, reduce stigma, and increase student accessibility to basic needs, the campus provides area resources to students, along with developing a campus hunger task force and area partnerships with active groups, including local food pantries and community gardens.

Through research collaboration with the New Mexico Statewide Basic Needs Projects, ENMU-Ruidoso students were found to experience higher levels of food and housing insecurity than the average New Mexico college student.

• 77% of ENMU-Ruidoso students surveyed experienced some level of food insecurity in the last 12 months, compared to 67% of the state student population.
• The intersection between food and housing insecurity is significant; in fact, 64% of Ruidoso Campus respondents faced both food and housing insecurity concurrently, compared to 44% of average respondents of New Mexico colleges.
• Only 5% of the campus community experienced food insecurity with secure housing. Given this association, establishing campus space for students to prepare and cook food is critical to program success.

The Ruidoso Campus Connections programming is spearheaded by Community Development and Grants Director Nicole DeLorenzo and Chief External Affairs Officer Robin DeMott and includes the 5^th Monday Community Meal, in partnership with Albertson’s Market and Calvary Chapel Church, to provide free meals to anyone in the community.