Jun. 22—Dina Briones and her son David, 16, collected goods Tuesday from a Food Depot truck that had stopped at their Santa Fe apartment complex.

A volunteer with the regional food bank pulled a cart to their door. It held packages of strawberries, a cardboard box full of fruits and vegetables, a paper bag of canned fruits, oats and rice.

"Glory to God," Briones said. "Thank Jesus."

She used to be a housekeeper but now stays home with her boy, who has seizures and severe disabilities from cerebral palsy. Her husband, Pedro Villa, works installing floors. "In one way or another, we always have some work," she said in Spanish.

According to a report The Food Depot released Tuesday, the family is among hundreds and possibly thousands in the city that experience food insecurity, largely due to base wages that aren't keeping pace with residents' needs. The report recommends a hike in the the city and county's "living wage" to more than $20 an hour in phases, beginning with an immediate boost to $17.

The 40-page document describes the challenges for working families trying to get by in a city where living costs are rising. It was drafted in response to a request two years ago from Mayor Alan Webber, who asked the nonprofit to draw up a plan to eliminate child hunger in the area.

About 5,000 children in the city of 88,000 endure hunger at times, the organization found.

This "isn't the kind of city we want," said Scott Bunton, a member of the task force that produced the report. What the group found, said Bunton, a retired U.S. deputy undersecretary of commerce, is that many families "lack the sufficient income and resources to meet their essential needs."

"Hunger is a symptom," Bunton said at a news conference Tuesday at The Food Depot's headquarters on Siler Road. It can't be addressed as an isolated problem but must be considered with wages and expenses, he said, adding if people can't afford essential needs, they will at times deprive their family of nutritious food.

Food Depot Executive Director Sherry Hooper assembled the task force of anti-hunger advocates and experts to research effective ways to address the city's child hunger problem and make recommendations. Using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's county wage studies, the group determined a living wage for a Santa Fe family of three would be $57,583 a year.

Average yearly salaries in the area for many workers are far lower — $45,116 for social service workers; $25,065 for health care support staff; $26,579 for sales employees; $34,241 for office and administrative support staff; $46,671 for education and library service workers; and $24,860 for grounds and building maintenance and cleaning staff.

The city of Santa Fe has adopted a minimum wage of $15 an hour for city employees, but workers in the city's private sector and all workers in other areas of the county still labor under minimum wage ordinances that raised the hourly pay to $12.95 on March 1, an increase of 63 cents from the rate that took effect a year earlier.

This "cannot be called a living wage," the report says. Under the city and county wage, 40 hours of work each week for 50 weeks a year generates $25,900 in pay before taxes, the report says, which isn't much more than the federal poverty level of $21,960 for a family of three.

The Food Depot's analysis, "Report to the Mayor: Ensuring Every Child in Santa Fe has Access to Sufficient and Nutritious Food," includes the following recommendations:

* u The city and Santa Fe County should mandate a minimum wage that, added to federal and state tax credits and government assistance, equals MIT's living wage of $27.66 per hour for a family of three in the area. The report suggests an hourly wage between $22 and $25, starting immediately with a raise to $17.

* u The city and county should increase expenditures and not rely on state and federal support for those increases. Bunton said new tax sources won't be necessary, but property taxes and gross receipts taxes will have to increase.

* The city and county should establish a community service jobs program for breadwinners who haven't secured full-time jobs.

* u Families in which the adults can't work because of Social Security Administration-determined disabilities should receive supplemental grants every two weeks.

Santa Fe takes pride in its diversity and compassion, the report says, but pay in the city and county "has not kept pace with our aspirations to be a just and equitable community."

Although there are many state and federal programs for low-income people, not one has the goal of eliminating hunger, and the programs don't have the money to do that, the report adds.

Webber said in a statement in response to the report: "Santa Fe is a city with the ability to see to it that no child goes hungry. ... As far as the recommendation for raising the living wage is concerned, I intend to form a task force that represents all parts of our community to take a look at what a living wage really is in 2022 in Santa Fe."

Bunton said the task force offered its plan for consideration and that it shouldn't be dismissed as "unworkable." If people find the plan "fatally flawed," he said, they should provide alternatives.