Las Vegas valley food pantry now open 7 days a week to help combat food insecurity

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — While Lutheran Social Services of Nevada offers a wide range of support services, like energy and employment assistance, CEO Tim Bedwell said most of their inquiries from the community are about food.

“The reality is it is more families now than we’ve ever had before. Families with or without children sometimes, single parents and they need help that we can give them, but we were missing some of them because we only had pantry hours on Monday through Thursday,” Bedwell explained.

That’s why the staff at Lutheran Social Services of Nevada or LSSN decided to open their pantry seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“You might ask why didn’t we do it before?” Bedwell answered. “It’s expensive. It’s costly to have staff here, but it’s important enough that we dived in with this. We’re hoping giving out additional food that we’ll be able to give out because of the time, we’ll also get more donations and be eligible for additional grants.”

Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman said this move will help many families in the east side of town hit hard by inflation.

“This location is really needed and the other churches and businesses across the valley and the city are also making sure they’re in places so people don’t have to travel far to get food,” Seaman remarked.

The nonprofit adjusted staff working hours and bulked up their food options. In over the last two weeks, Bedwell said they’ve been able to help 70,000 people in Southern Nevada.

“Over the past years, we had delivered over a million pounds of food and that’s tremendous but we also upped our social media dramatically and this is part of what it’s about is to build excitement and get the reach out there,” Bedwell added.

While food donations are always welcomed, the nonprofit also hoping for a car donation which would help staff transport food across the valley to those who can’t access it.

Henderson councilwoman Carrie Cox is also a board member at LSSN. She’s already seen a positive response.

“Just a lot of gratitude, thanking us for being here, thanking our staff for doing such a great job because it’s a relief for them knowing they have someplace to go,” Cox said.

Lutheran Social Services of Nevada’s pantry is located at 4323 Boulder Highway. Food donations are welcomed and they are also in need of volunteers.

For more information on their pantry click here.

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