Lucchese

bring food in this community is astronomical. We had to quickly adjust our strategy and purchase trucks and start running our own fleet at an even higher level, so we can go and get those items.”

With a fleet of refrigerated trucks, including 12 tractor-trailers, they bring nutritious food back into El Paso. Items include healthy frozen meats, fruits and vegetables, fresh dairy, and canned and boxed goods. For too many of the people that they serve through the distribution centers, the only food they get is what they receive in a pre-loaded cart at the food bank. Susan earnestly states, “If we aren’t able to provide them a healthy mix of all the nutritional items they need, then they can’t maintain a healthy diet. Food is life. How do we raise the next generation of leaders in this country without the nutritional building blocks? How do they learn in school, or concentrate if they’re hungry? How do the working-age adults perform at their jobs if they’re not getting nutritious, healthy food? How do the seniors maintain their cognitive abilities if they’re not getting adequate nutrition? It’s a workforce issue, it’s a healthcare issue, it’s an education issue, and it’s an environmental issue as well as it is a humanitarian issue.”

During the past seven months, Susan and the team at El Pasoans Fighting Hunger have had to get creative to get the job done. One of the strategies they began to look to was what products became available with the closure of the restaurants and cafeterias. They started bringing in yogurt in two-liter bags, designed for a yogurt machine, logs of lunch meats intended to be sold at a deli, etc. Everything was packaged for commercial use, but they decided to continue to feed the community and get their hands on any nutritional food, whether it was packaged for household use or not. For three months, this is how they fed the people of El Paso. The non-profit also turned towards available government resources and the support of FEMA to provide two months of food supplies.

Additionally, they had to make sure they had enough help with daily labor to cover the different pantries. For three months, 96 National Guard members were stationed here along with having continuous assistance from Workforce Development and the Get Shift Done program, which provides work for displaced restaurant workers.

As CEO of such an extensive operation, to Susan, this has meant a lot of different things. Located at the front of the building is her office, with large windows facing the line of individuals that are there, day in and day out. “I see all of the people that come by, the children, the elderly, the pregnant mothers … It is both a distressing and heartwarming experience,” she expresses. “The stress has been colossal, but there has been an incredible amount of creativity to get through