Rugged Trade

is made from scratch, hand grinded heirloom corn, regionally sourced from farmers in Oaxaca and the state of Mexico—native seeds, non gmo, no pesticide,” according to Alejandro. “The process in which the corn is treated is called Nixtamalization, which goes back to pre-colonial times,“ said Daniel. “The saying goes, ‘Sin maiz no hay pais,’” which in English means without corn there is no country. Don’t let this ancient process fool you, the menu is very contemporary with dishes rooted in tradition. Try the Teofilo Borundo taco, named after Alejandro’s uncle, former governor of Chihuahua. It is a cheesy, shrimp a la Diablo taco in a crispy corn tortilla. Also, vegan never tasted so good with the avocado tostada with pumpkin seed matcha, picked red onion and sprinkled with kale dust. It sounds crazy but sources close to this story insist it is to die for. Go by for a visit to see these young entrepreneurs with vision in action. Call for takeout at 915-303-8038 or order online at toasttab.com.

Resilience Realized

El Pasoans Fighting Hunger

| By: HOPE ALEGRE photos courtesy of: EL PASOANS FIGHTING HUNGER |

Having been established only four years ago, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger is the youngest foodbank in America. The resilience to continually help the community has shone as a beacon of hope during this pandemic. Driving up to the facility, you are met with the disheartening effects of COVID. People line the sidewalks across the region, and like the ocean, they flow into a current of continuous directed movement—forced upon them by the grip of COVID-19.

As a food bank, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger provides hunger and disaster relief for the most vulnerable people in the community. It’s important to understand that to provide the service, they must operate as a business—a trucking, logistics, and warehousing business with a charitable heart. For CEO Susan Goodell, her focus remains on balancing the resources that are needed to operate. For her, it comes down to a series of questions: Are there enough trucking assets? Is the building structured in a way that allows them to do the job properly? Is there enough manpower? Is there enough funding? and more importantly, is there enough food? These are just some of the questions that Susan has found herself asking daily to make sure they have the resources to feed the 8,000 families that will visit their distribution centers today, tomorrow and the days following. Unlike a business, when this nonprofit starts a new venture, it comes with expenses rather than revenue. During the pandemic, they started a home-delivery program to assist the elderly who are unable to leave their home, people with disabilities, and people dealing with a COVID positive diagnosis. As a result of the pandemic, they have faced many challenges, but never faltered—they adjusted.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, when shelves were emptied, it hit our food bank hard,” Susan states. “The big grocery stores were consuming the vast amount of those products and the vast amount of the trucking assets. Within a couple of weeks of the COVID crisis hitting this part of the country, the food industry, and the supply chains that support the food industry, were effectively broken. We had to completely redevelop our ability to source food. In this region, we are a desert community, and very little is produced here. In addition to that, we are isolated, and the cost of trucking to