ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Four years ago, Sarah Love found a way to perfectly blend her love for Volkswagens and her calling to help those going through crisis.

“That’s how that started, literally on the curb in front of my house, which coined the term ‘rolling to a stop to curb hunger,'” Love said. “And that’s how the Pink Bus originated.”

After a pandemic’s worth of meal deliveries in her mobile bus, Love expanded to a brick-and-mortar space in the Northeast Heights in November. Her friend is lending her the space, so there’s no overhead. Every donation goes right to families.

“It’ll be mothers that come with their child, or they’re in between housing, or they’re about to get their house,” Love said. “Also, a lot of just single parents, parents that are living in a shelter.”

The Pink Bus keeps its focus on families in crisis.

“We’re trying to define that by saying if you have one or less meals in the home at the time,” Love said. “Maybe their food stamps have been running late because that’s been a huge issue. Or supplementing between jobs and things like that.”

Love wanted to open the pantry every Saturday, but quickly found out she had to change her goals.

“The need is so big that I can’t keep up, I cannot keep up with the amount of food that’s on the shelf,” Love said.

Community partners like the Albuquerque Sandia Rotary Club help her fill her shelves when she needs it most.

“Those are frontline organizations that are providing direct service to people who need that access to food right in their community,” said Sonya Warwick with Roadrunner Food Bank.

Warwick says every can in every local pantry matters, especially this time of year.

“It definitely slows down in terms of food donations, monetary donations, support from volunteers,” Warwick said. “So it’s always great to have reminders out in the community that those are three very much-needed things.”

Roadrunner works with hundreds of organizations like the Pink Bus across the state. No matter how low the donations go, they say there will always be a pantry, bank, or bus available to help.

The Pink Bus welcomes any community organization to donate, and they accept walk-ins during pantry hours. You can keep up with them here.

You can also find food assistance from Roadrunner Food Bank here.