By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Thousands of families throughout the valley struggle to put food on the table everyday.
One in 10 live in poverty here in Las Vegas and skipping meals has become an everyday routine.
And it's not just the homeless looking for something to eat – it's families who are living paycheck to paycheck that sometimes cannot meet basic needs.
The shelves at Catholic Charities may look stocked, but the food here doesn't last long. While donations are high, demand for this food is even higher.
“The real issue that we are having right now is that people that have never come to a social service agency like Catholic Charities or the Salvation Army are now coming. In many ways, some of our donors are now becoming our clients. Said Monsignor Patrick Leary with Catholic Charities.
He says in the last year the demand for food at Catholic Charities has gone up 60-percent, putting a strain on their agency and other local non-profit charities. They feed everyone from the homeless to young families.
“We're giving out more baby food than we ever have. In the last two weeks, we have given out three pallets of food. Things we normally don't stock in a food bank we now need because the younger families are coming to us,” he adds.
But the new Three Square Food Bank located at 4190 N. Pecos promises to have that baby food and other food items. This 50,000 square foot warehouse will provide food to 80 non-profit agencies. Those agencies will then put this food into the hands of those who need it most.
Punam Mathur with Three Square says thousands of kids go without food in our valley. “Four out of every 10 children who attend public school are food insecure. Those are staggering numbers of people. That means there are at least 200,000 people in our community who aren't sure where their next meal is going to come from.”
Business and gaming leaders have vowed to help, never letting the shelves in this food bank go empty and pitching in to hopefully help more and more struggling families meet their basic needs.
America's Second Harvest, which works with food banks all over the nation, has also pitched in. They provided Three Square with more than $1.8 million to fund its first year of operations.
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