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The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its latest report on food insecurity this week. It basically says too many Americans - and far too many New Mexicans - aren't sure where their next meal is coming from.

We in the news media run a lot of reports like this one: bad news that doesn't just affect someone across the continent, but neighbors and friends across the street.

We run them, often using local faces to illustrate the problem, because they are important, vital.

And at the marrow of life, what's a more important problem than hunger?

And yet, often I fear that such reports, part of the inescapable media rainstorm that drenches our world, create a numbness - a torpor that is hard to shake.

I'm going to try to change that in the next dozen paragraphs. Clever writing won't do it. Neither will guilt. This time, for lack of a better technique, I'm going to lean on CAPITAL LETTERS. Every time there's a point to be made EXPECT TO SEE CAPITAL LETTERS.

Jasmin Holmstrup of Albuquerque's Roadrunner Food Bank says that beneath the top layer of terrible news (124,000 NEW MEXICO HOUSEHOLDS ARE AT RISK OF HUNGER), there's an even worse statistic.

According to America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, the biggest hunger relief group in the nation, New Mexico's poverty level means 24 PERCENT OF CHILDREN IN NEW MEXICO are at risk of hunger.

"We've seen it over and over during the years," says Holmstrup. "Children and seniors are the most hungry, the most affected."

ONE IN FOUR CHILDREN. IN NEW MEXICO.

Holmstrup says the problem is even more pronounced here because getting food to poor people - or getting poor people to food - is a very difficult problem to solve in the world of $3-a-gallon gasoline.

"Our costs have gone up significantly," Holmstrup says of nonprofit food banks like Roadrunner.

There are ways to help this Thanksgiving season. SMITH'S grocery stores are holding a NONPERISHABLE FOOD DRIVE THROUGH NOV. 26. THE CITY'S LETTER CARRIERS ARE PICKING UP NONPERISHABLES TODAY AT MAILBOXES AROUND THE CITY. COMCAST AND STARBUCK'S ARE ALSO HOLDING DRIVES.

But the best way to fight hunger, Holmstrup says, IS A FINANCIAL DONATION TO FOOD BANKS like Roadrunner. Cash gives food banks THE ABILITY TO BUY IN BULK - AND TO BETTER AFFORD THE RISING COSTS OF FUEL.

A key component in Roadrunner's purchases is fresh produce - the kind of good food that not only fills people up, but keeps them from having to rely on the sugar-heavy, fat-laden foods that may allay hunger for a moment but lead to health problems in the long-run.

"THERE IS A DIRECT CORRELATION," Holmstrup says, "BETWEEN BEING POOR, HUNGRY AND OBESE."

Finally, there's this. If you can, donate to the food drives. Donate money. But WHEN YOU DO THAT, ALSO TACK A NOTE TO THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR THAT SAYS JULY. Because it's in the summer, when nobody's thinking about Thanksgiving, when food banks need help more than ever.

Look, I think we can all agree a ride on capital letters isn't the most elegant way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and I'm sorry if you think it's a stupid gimmick.

But there's no way a child in this state, in this nation, should go hungry. No way at all.