Roadrunner CEO: ‘Food insecurity can strike anyone’

Dana Yost was named the president and CEO of Albuquerque-based Roadrunner Food Bank in August 2023. He comes to the city from Tucson, Arizona — a state where he worked in the food bank industry for 13 years. 

In just a handful of months at the helm, Yost said he’s noticed distinct differences in the rural and urban communities of Arizona and New Mexico, including key concerns like access to grocery stores.

Roadrunner is the largest New Mexico nonprofit with a mission to end food insecurity — defined as those in an economic and social condition with limited or uncertain access to adequate food. It operates a massive food distribution hub at 5840 Office Blvd. NE in the North I-25 corridor with a fleet of semi trucks that pick up “rescued produce” from grocery stores for delivery to main distribution points. The food would otherwise end up in landfills. Additional food and supplies are purchased through wholesale channels. 

Clients are given food bags through walk-up and drive-up options, and via hundreds of member partners like food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and regional food banks. 

City Desk ABQ asked Yost about his work and what’s on the horizon for Roadrunner. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

City Desk ABQ: Tell us about your background.

Yost: I’m originally from Ohio. My dad was an aerospace engineer and got transferred out West, which was sort of how we migrated out here. I got my master’s degree in English from Northern Arizona University and I’ve lived in Arizona the majority of my adult life. I taught at the university level for a while, owned a coffee house, and I worked for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Food banking was a transition I made when I was looking to do something different that would help my community. I like to tell people that folks come to this work for a lot of different reasons, but you stay for the mission because it gets in your heart and soul.

You have an extensive background in food banks?

I started with St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix and was the director of resource strategy. I got involved in the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and was the CEO there. The last four or five years my primary focus was working with Mexican food banks to grow their capacity. I think that’s part of the reason I got a chance to come here, because I started my career building and growing food banks.

What are New Mexico’s challenges? 

In addition to food insecurity and food access challenges are the lack of grocery stores and the geography. I thought I knew what rural areas were until I came to New Mexico. So many of these small rural communities are isolated and a lot of them have high senior populations or retired folks that don’t have transportation. It’s a giant challenge for us to get food into those areas and for those communities to survive. 

Folks in some of these smaller communities might have access to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) but don’t have any place to spend it because it’s three hours to a grocery store. What we try to do is get food out there. 

It’s a different environment in Albuquerque?

One of the things that stunned me when I first came to Albuquerque is, you know, in Phoenix or in Tucson, we have grocery stores on every corner and it’s just that’s not the case here. I think that that’s especially challenging for folks that are struggling with different aspects of poverty, whether they don’t have transportation or they don’t have the physical ability to get across town to a grocery store, or they have to make multiple stops at different grocery stores to get what they need.

Some assume most of your clients are homeless?

Food insecurity can strike anyone; it crosses the spectrum. I read the other day that around 60 % of Americans are within one to two paychecks of needing to access food banks. There are certainly folks locked into systemic poverty that are really struggling, especially our senior populations on fixed incomes. But on any given day food insecurity can strike anyone’s life depending on your financial circumstances, on your health issues. Maybe somebody in the family gets sick and it’s the income earner. We see that all the time.

What did you observe during the pandemic?

We saw that those already in poverty were impacted to a much greater degree. We saw people that got plunged into economic situations where they needed support because their company closed or they weren’t able to go to work or were downsized. Folks just couldn’t buy groceries. It was a disaster for everyone, but a lot of people that came through our lines told us flat out that they didn’t have access to food anywhere else. It was super scary and as the pandemic progressed the numbers rose and rose for those in a poverty situation they’d been thrust into.

What’s on tap for Roadrunner this year?

We recently leased a building across the street (at 3831 Singer Blvd. NE) and we’re going to move our pantry operation there in the next few months and really open it up to a much wider audience. It’ll be a shopping experience where folks can come in and make selections rather than just handing them a food box. 

Our outreach to the unhoused population is changing, too. That’s something that is really important to our city and across many communities in the state. We’re really looking to build more partnerships in that work, to help to reach that community in a much stronger way. We designed a day pack with pop-top cans and ready-to-eat meals to give to someone who’s struggling and unhoused, because with some of our traditional foods, unless you have some kind of kitchen or microwave access it’s a challenge. We’re also working on sourcing hygiene kits, because a lot of the entities that provide relief for that population, especially in Albuquerque, are dependent on that. 

We’re also working on a pilot program in the southern part of the state, based in Las Cruces, to be able to provide more logistical and operational support and more food to that part of the state. 

Anything else would you like to tell City Desk readers?

I think an important message is that it takes a community to do this work. Roadrunner cannot do this by itself and we’re dependent on this network of agency partners. We’re dependent on the goodwill of the community to support us through volunteerism and financial support. The lifeline and the majority of our donations come from individuals. It takes politicians, city leaders, community leaders, business leaders to step forward and say poverty is not OK in my community, it’s not OK for folks to go to bed hungry tonight.
For more information on Roadrunner, click here.