ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Lobo Food Pantry is making sure students don’t go hungry but with the holiday break coming up, they could use some help from the community.

“In the last semester, we’ve seen a major increase in volume. Our current average student attendance is 120 the most being 180, the lowest we’ve seen is 80 students. It does fluctuate but the average is 120,” said Amanda Martinez, the Basic Needs Specialist at UNM.

Martinez said the increase in foot traffic – on top of a good number of students staying on campus for Thanksgiving break – means the Lobo Food pantry needs to be extra prepared, so students don’t go hungry while they are closed.

“Physical donations are the best; they are the easiest. Having people donate directly to the pantry is really great because then we can put it direction the shelves and then the students can get that food a little bit quicker than if we had to go buy it from Roadrunner or the grocery store,” said Martinez.

They are also low on hygiene products like toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner. For people who may not have time to stop by but still want to help out their Amazon Wishlist ships the donations directly to them.

“With the pantry, a lot of our students that come in see the pantry well stocked but within an hour or two it’s quickly gone so we are really trying to make it more consistent for every student so that every student has the same experience or can access the same items,” she said.

The best time to drop off stuff in person is Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.