Low inventory startles new CEO of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger

New chief executive officer of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, Susan Goodell, said that she was shocked to see so many bare shelves in the warehouse when she arrived here in El Paso. The historic low supply of food is a result of a perfect storm of different factors.

“It’s a combination of being hard hit during the holidays, a combination of disaster relief with Hurricane Harvey, where both food came out of this facility to feed other communities, as well as food that would have normally been donated to the food bank here in El Paso,” Goodell said.

In addition to those factors, more than 90,000 El Pasoans are reported to be food insecure, but Goodell says the actual number is likely closer to 120,000 due to under reporting.

Food supply is so low that El Pasoans Fighting Hunger have had to rely on neighboring food bank’s surpluses in order to meet the needs of the community.

“The reality of the situation is that those food banks don’t have a lot to spare either. So while they’re doing us a favor here in the city of El Paso, we know that is a short lived thing and we cannot call on that favor too often,” Goodell said.

In addition to the need for cash donations and staple food items, Goodell said they are in need of volunteers in order to get the food they have out into the community. So she proposed a challenge:

“The number one volunteer group that we have is the Chihuahuas. The Chihuahuas were able to pack more food in terms of pounds in a given period of time than any other group that we have. So I am putting out a challenge in the community to come in and beat the Chihuahuas.”

If you’d like to volunteer, there are two shifts available a day Monday through Saturday.