LANL Spring Food Drive Collects Donations for The Food Depot Friday

In the county built around a nuclear weapons laboratory that pays out $1.5 billion in annual salaries, more than one in twelve residents lacks reliable access to food. That figure, 8.2 percent food insecurity among Los Alamos County adults and 10.1 percent among children, forms the real backdrop of LANL's Spring Food Drive, which is collecting donations for The Food Depot at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church this Friday, April 10.

The Food Depot, northern New Mexico's only regional food bank, distributed 9.8 million pounds of food and resources in fiscal year 2025, the equivalent of 681,000 meals per month across nine counties. The organization reaches roughly 40,000 people in the region, including 12,000 children. Every dollar donated translates to up to four meals through The Food Depot's bulk-sourcing and food-rescue operation, which pulled nearly 2 million pounds from grocery store partners in 2025 alone.

LANL's decision to organize a public-facing collection day rather than a strictly internal one carries weight precisely because of the lab's economic scale. As northern New Mexico's largest employer with approximately 13,200 direct employees, the lab functions as the county's financial spine. When it recruits its workforce into a community drive, the result is both volume and logistics: LANL volunteers will staff the Immaculate Heart of Mary site Friday to receive and unload donations on the spot, shortcutting the handling time that can delay food reaching distribution.

The high-income, high-insecurity paradox in Los Alamos is not unusual in communities anchored by a single dominant employer. Housing costs, competing household expenses, and the county's limited retail food infrastructure create pressure points that federal income averages obscure. The Food Depot's data across its nine-county service area shows the range plainly: Harding County in the northeast corner of the state carries a food insecurity rate of 16.7 percent, more than twice Los Alamos County's, but the lab's county is far from immune.

Friday's collection at Immaculate Heart of Mary will accept shelf-stable nonperishable foods and grocery-store gift cards. Financial donations directed to The Food Depot carry the same four-to-one meal leverage and can be made through the food bank's website for anyone who cannot make it to the church. The spring drive is timed strategically: large, well-publicized collections ahead of weekends help The Food Depot stabilize inventory and plan distribution across a network that spans from Santa Fe to rural Mora and San Miguel counties.