LARRY CRUIKSHANK/VIEWThree Square Chief Executive Officer Julie Murray holds some newly delivered bread as she explains the needs of the valley?s hungry inside the Three Square Food Bank, 4190 N. Pecos Road.
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In a town lauded for its excesses, the number of hungry in Las Vegas -- those going without daily sustenance, let alone three square meals a day -- has been reported at as high as 10 percent of the population. That percentage translates to approximately 210,000 valley residents, many of them seniors and children.
Three Square, a nonprofit food bank serving the community out of a 50,000-square-foot warehouse at 4190 N. Pecos Road, is dedicated to feeding each Las Vegan represented in those numbers.
"We're working to be the food solution," said Julie Murray, chief executive officer of the nonprofit.
The goal of Three Square, said Murray, is to act as a hub for donations that come into the organization from food vendors such as Tyson Foods and U.S. Food Service, as well as local groceries and Strip hotels.
"Then we can equitably ensure that it goes to all the agencies, nonprofits and churches in the community that are uplifting lives and working to feed hungry people," she said.
To feed the number of hungry families throughout the valley -- many of them members of the working poor -- Three Square's long-term goal is to distribute 49 million pounds of food out of its warehouse facility per year.
Last year saw a distribution of more than one million pounds. This year, according to founder Eric Hilton, director of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, as many as 10 million pounds will be distributed to local agencies.
"We intend that number to increase to 20 million next year, and 30 million the year after that," Hilton said.
Hilton founded the organization in 2006 after the hotelier, a former vice chairman of the Hilton Hotels Corp., happened to see a news report one evening that announced the closing of a valley nonprofit devoted to feeding the hungry.
"That closing meant there were going to be 300,000 to 400,000 meals that were no longer being served to the people who needed them," Hilton said. "I did not understand how that could happen in Las Vegas."
The next morning, Hilton put in a call to the Conrad Hilton Foundation. The foundation then donated a quarter of a million dollars to conduct a study of hunger in Las Vegas and found that the needs of as many as 50 percent of valley residents identifying themselves as being among the hungry were not being met.
"I have never been hungry," said the 82-year-old Hilton, speaking with passion for the project from his home in Las Vegas. "I probably never will be hungry. I can only imagine what it must feel like not to be able to get a meal, let alone proper meals, to your children."
Hilton and Murray share a deep concern for the as many as 40 percent of Clark County students who take part in the federally subsidized school lunch and breakfast program.
Many Clark County students coming from single-parent households earning $10,000 or less or two-parent households earning $20,000 a year or less are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
Through such programs, students are fed during the week, Murray said.
But through the weekend, they often go without and show up for school on Monday without the fuel needed to thrive and to learn.
"With the economy continuing to get worse," Murray said, "the school district has told us there is a huge increase in the number of kids they look at on Fridays, and they know these kids are just suffering and won't have food on the weekend."
Three Square is now testing the waters for its Backpack Program, which will deliver free food to area schools for kids to take home.
The foods are selected from a list compiled by nutritionists, based upon kid-friendly foods that students can get to easily and serve themselves. Shelf-stable milk, peanut butters and cereals are among the nutrient-rich and easy-to-handle foods that will be made available to kids to stash in their backpacks and carry home to sustain them through the weekend.
"If we're going to be a food solution," Murray said, "it just can't be rescue food or food bank food. It has to be anything this community needs in a food solution."
Three Square's Backpack Program will begin April 16 with 10 at-risk schools.
After results of the program are evaluated, there is the hope of expanding it valleywide.
Three Square welcomes donations. For more information on how to donate time or goods for the April 16 kickoff of the Backpack Program, as well as other volunteer events and dates, call volunteer coordinator Erica Dermer at 644-3663 or visit www.threesquare.org.
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