As missions go, this one ranks right up there: "The Food Depot strives to end hunger in Northern New Mexico."

Last year, the depot distributed enough food to provide some 4 million meals across its nine-county service area. Staffers think that they easily could distribute two to three times that.

Even that might not be enough do the job. Depot executive director Sherry Hooper says that since the recession began, there's been a 20 percent increase in demand for emergency food assistance.

I've been thinking a lot about food, hunger and the pain of going without. Particularly during the holiday season, not having enough — for yourself, for your kids — hurts.

Imagine how deep the pain will go in this year of 2009, when real-life unemployment is in the double digits, unemployment checks are running out and folks living from week to week are choosing between buying food or paying the heating bill.

The reality of want amid our nation's plenty takes the shine off all the Christmas commercials and drummed-up holiday cheer. And it should, because we can't solve the problem of hunger unless we open our eyes and acknowledge the problem.

At the Food Depot, surplus food supplies are collected and then distributed — whether to after-school programs, food pantries, churches or other organizations that then distribute the food to people in need. Our depot serves some 110 nonprofit agencies across nine counties.

It's a big job.

Also on the job is Food for Santa Fe, which provides a bag of groceries every Thursday morning to folks who say they need the help. On Wednesdays, volunteers package the bags; then, from 6-9 a.m. at the Coll-Greene Angel Depot, 1222 Siler Road, the free groceries — some 1,000 bags a week — are handed out. No questions asked.

It's direct witness by the hundreds of volunteers who gather the food and give it out: Food for Santa Fe has no paid staff.

Both groups do the work of angels.

Depending on which statistic you pick, New Mexico ranks second or third in the country in what experts term "food insecurity," a fancy way of saying folks are going hungry. They don't always know where their next meal is coming from. About 49 million Americans fit this category in 2008, the highest number recorded since the Department of Agriculture started tracking the statistic in 1995.

Some 23 percent of New Mexico children under 5 fall into this category. That's nearly one in four of all children in the state.

Hunger isn't a continent away. It's sitting next to us all over Santa Fe.

This week, most of us will be out and about, planning and buying our Thanksgiving meals. We will gather to mark the most food-centric holiday of all with our family and friends. We will give thanks, because especially in these tumultuous times, we need to acknowledge the blessings of our country's abundance.

Those blessings, though, are missing many. We can continue to avert our eyes from true suffering around us, or we can do what Americans do so well — share with our neighbors from our plenty, not our leftovers.

Before you buy that fat Thanksgiving turkey, or put your sweet potatoes in the oven, consider giving first.

It's easy to donate — you can go to the Food Depot online (www.fooddepot.org) and click donate, and give from the comfort of home. Or, call 471-1633 and ask how best to help.

Food for Santa Fe accepts donations at Food for Santa Fe, Inc., P.O. Box 31086, Santa Fe, NM 87594-1086, or online at http://www.foodforsantafe.org/index.html. Hit the "How You Can Help" button and then read down to the link for online donations at the Santa Fe Community Foundation.

Our neighbors are hungry. But with our help, they don't have to be.

Reach Inez Russell at inezrussell@msn.com.