Surprise donation for Las Cruces volunteers

Volunteers at the Las Cruces migrant processing center received a surprise donation of 30,000 meals from the non-profit organization Pack Away Hunger.

“it’s putting us in a better place to be able to continue for the long term to serve people you never know what the next day brings and how many asylum seekers will come to our facility this will give us a chance to get ahead of things and have options” says Las Cruces emergency management director Amanda Bowen.

With the help of local motorcycle clubs, the group delivered and unpacked boxes filled with freeze-dried rice and vegetables.

Bowen says the volunteers have been overworked and the donations will go a long way to keeping them prepared for large groups of migrants down the road.

Even asylum seekers staying at the processing center decided to pitch in when the trucks arrived.

“It was kind of an awesome thing to see the Las Cruces residents through the motorcycle clubs as well as the asylum seekers to get these pallets of food unloaded so we now have thousands and thousands of meals that we can be providing to our asylum seekers as they come into us” Bowen says.

The salvation army is the usual source of meals for the armory and provides meals every day except Sunday.

The El Caldito soup kitchen steps up to fill the need for food on those days.