-Back here in Southern Nevada, the food bank Three Square says 1 in 7 of our neighbors is hungry.

Add in a recent reduction in SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, and the food bank says even more people don't know where their next meal will come from.

Nevada Week visited Three Square to discuss that and more with Director of Operations Maurice Johnson, Senior Outreach Manager Nolga Valadez, and Event Marketing Manager Will Edwards.

Well, thank you all for joining Nevada Week.

Before we talk about food insecurity, I want to mention volunteers that are in the background.

They are packing meals for Meet Up and Eat Up, a program we're going to be talking about.

And you told me off camera, Maurice, that they are from Coach Cares, the handbag company.

How neat!

Volunteerism reportedly took a hit during the pandemic.

It was down.

I wonder if that happened here, and how are you doing now in that area.

(Maurice Johnson) So if I can, I can give a little bit of context.

-Sure.

-Prepandemic, we would have roughly about 34,000 volunteers coming through our facility helping us out with various different programs that we had offered at the time.

-How often was that?

-Throughout the course of a year.

-Okay.

-You fast-forward to pandemic hits, everything shuts down.

Well, we had to shut down in that aspect because of safety concerns, COVID.

Early on, no one even knew what it was, except it was very bad.

And ultimately, some of those programs that we offered during that timeframe with some of our community partners have not been able to come back.

So when you look at 34,000 volunteers annually now down to about 13,000, that's a huge drop-off.

-Wow!

-But with the programs that we do have in place and still have here, we're just so gracious and so thankful for those volunteers that still come in each and every single day, whether it's a group like Coach Cares or individuals.

We have individuals that come here every single day, almost like a full-time job.

-On their own, not part of a group.

-Right.

-Well, speaking of COVID, Nolga, when it started, people receiving SNAP benefits began receiving a second monthly payment as well.

As of April though, that second monthly payment is no longer there.

What kind of impact has that had on the groups that you serve?

(Nolga Valadez) Yes, that is correct.

We saw the last monthly extra allotment coming in the month of March.

After that, it went back to what it was prepandemic.

One thing we do want to make clear is that SNAP has not gone away.

We want to make sure that everybody understand that SNAP continues.

It was just the emergency allotment that went away.

And while some of those reductions were extreme-- -Give me an example for seniors.

-Right.

So a senior typically receive around $23 a month of benefits.

With the emergency allotment, they were getting an extra about 200 and something dollars per month extra.

So with that going away, now they see about a 91% reduction in their benefits, so which is a very extreme impact for them.

-I struggle to understand how $23 was significant enough in the first place for seniors who were the seniors on Social Security, I would think?

-Yes, that is correct.

Usually they're on a fixed income receiving Social Security benefits.

And they're the ones receiving, typically, those $23.

-Okay.

What kind of impact has it had now that they're no longer getting that second monthly payment?

Are you feeling it here at the food bank?

-Yes.

We are receiving more phone calls in our call center, people seeking where they can get that missing component.

So we're seeing people asking for, Where can I go get food?

So we're giving out, you know, food pantry locations as well as our Golden Groceries program that allows the seniors to go to specific Golden Groceries, pantries where they can get that extra help, as well as the Lyft rides that is free of charge to them if they don't have transportation.

So we're able to accommodate them with that.

-Maurice, fair to say increased need as a result of those SNAP benefits no longer being there, the second monthly payment?

-Indeed.

-So increased need.

You have inflation as well.

Where do donations stand, and can you paint a picture of do you have enough food?

-Well, I can tell you donations are down.

And I'm talking specifically to food donations.

Inflation not only impacted each and every single one of our individual households, it also impacted a lot of our retail donors as well.

So they're having to watch their bottom line.

That's where many of those donations were coming from.

We're hoping that they can come back soon.

But in the interim, of course, when individuals can give to us financially, we can still stretch every single dollar to make three complete full meals.

So if people still want to contribute in that way, that is a massive blessing for us, being a part of the Feeding America network.

-It's better for you to get a monetary donation as opposed to a food donation because you can, as you mentioned, make that dollar stretch.

-Yes.

-Okay.

I want to bring in you, Will, about inflation and how it has impacted Restaurant Week, which will you tell me about that.

It's one of your biggest fundraisers of the year.

(Will Edwards) Yes.

It's one of our biggest fundraisers.

I always look at Restaurant Week as a great community activity.

It gives-- it really shows us the humanity in our community because people come together, they have a meal, and then a meal is then given to someone in our community who needs it the most.

-So that's how it works.

You go to a restaurant, and part of what you're paying for goes to Three Square.

-That is correct.

-How has inflation impacted this year's event?

-It's very-- it's very interesting.

Some people, some restaurants, couldn't do it because of it.

But on the flip side of that, we have this year, the most participants ever in the history of Restaurant Week.

We have more than 230 participants for Restaurant Week this year.

So even though inflation is hitting the restaurants as well, they're still coming back.

It's Vegas strong.

-And inflation is hitting everyone when they go out to eat.

So how expensive is this to take part in?

-Well, every restaurant that participates, they agreed to do a three course prix fixe menu at a fixed price.

So when I go through restaurantweeklv.org, you can filter through price points to find everything.

I believe that there is something for everyone on Restaurant Week.

For example, there are tons of $20 lunches out there.

And the other day, I went to a little fast food place to grab a couple of sandwiches for myself and my wife, and it costs me $25.

You can go out and get a three course lunch for 20 bucks and help your hungry neighbor at the same time.

It's a win-win.

-Nolga, I want to bring you back in and go to more of a national perspective that could filter down to Southern Nevadans.

As of this taping, the debt ceiling deal that is reportedly in the works has additional work requirements for older Americans, excluding veterans and homeless people, but that they would have to work in order to receive assistance.

So currently, according to The New York Times , work requirements apply to able-bodied adults 49 years old and younger.

This deal would raise the age to 54 years old.

What do you think about that?

What kind of impact do you think it would have if that's what ends up happening?

-Yeah, well, the reality of it is the older we get, the harder it is to find work.

So, you know, increasing the age group may make a little bit-- a little bit more challenging to, to be able to obey to that new, um... -To this new requirement.

-Yes.

-It sounds kind of scary then for a food bank like yourself.

What are you preparing for?

What do you foresee coming down the pipeline?

-So when we're bringing food into the food bank, our biggest priority is trying to make sure we get the bang for the buck.

So we've gotten very creative with trying to make sure that we're not leaving any stones unturned to try and get the best price to get the food in here for our hungry neighbors.

-Okay.

And how have you gotten creative in that process?

-More vendors.

We've used more vendors than we ever have in the past.

We had a select few that we could bounce numbers off of.

Now we're using anywhere from 25 to 30 different vendors for different commodities.

So whether it's fresh produce, whether it's dairy, proteins, frozen proteins, you name it, we're trying to shake those trees and see what we can get.

-So you're looking around to find the best price possible.

-Mm-hmm.

-Getting creative.

I think Restaurant Week also fits in with that, Will.

What are you particularly excited about this year with Restaurant Week?

-First of all, it's our 16th year doing Restaurant Week.

And I'm excited because there's so much variety this year on Restaurant Week.

We-- I mean, of course, you have Mexican, we have Mediterranean, we have Filipino food, Chinese.

It's so many opportunities to go out and find your favorite new place.

-So whatever you're feeling like, you can probably find.

And that is how people can help Three Square, but let's talk about other ways in which Three Square is helping people.

Meet Up and Eat Up, what is that program?

-So Meet Up and Eat Up is our Summer Food Service Program in which we go out into the community.

There's roughly 80 sites that we go out to actually support kids that eat-- that need to eat during the summer months.

Unfortunately, under Free and Reduced Lunch Program and when school's over, those kids may not have anything to eat.

That's where we work to try and close that gap so they can have a nutritious meal so they can be a kid during the summer months.

-And when we spoke on the phone prior to this interview, Nolga, you had a message you wanted to make sure that you got across about some of the misconceptions about the people that utilize food banks.

What was that message?

-Yes.

You know, we have this misconception that perhaps people that are receiving SNAP benefits or are utilizing this benefit are people that do not want to work or they're lazy and they just want to sit at home, when the reality of it is that it's not necessarily true.

The majority of the people receiving SNAP benefits actually do work.

It's just that they're not making enough to be able to meet the needs that they have, especially with families, when you have single parenting, or maybe there is two parents but only one working, or maybe they both work, but they don't make enough.

-I see all of you nodding your heads.

-Mm-hmm.

-You experienced this personally here?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Without a doubt.

I mean, you know, like Nolga said, anybody who needs help, we won't turn-- we won't turn anybody away.

But it's working families.

You know, it's families, individuals that are trying to make ends meet, and they just can't do it.

So they just need a little boost, just a tiny bit of help and assistance to get them over that hump.

And we've had people come in and say, I was-- I was doing terribly.

You guys helped me.

Here's a donation.

I'm doing much better now.

I don't need the service.

-Very neat.

Thank you all for your time today.