By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
Many residents in Moapa Valley got some much needed help on Friday with the opening of the first area mobile food pantry. Food was distributed to over 200 families Friday afternoon at the park in Moapa by volunteers, joined by community and state officials.
Families didn’t even have to leave their cars. The food distribution was organized in a drive-up format so families could drive through several stations and receive food at no cost. Anyone who felt they needed assistance was welcome to participate.
The Moapa Mobile Food Pantry is a community partnership between Moapa Parks and Recreation and Three Square, a non-profit organization whose goal it is to provide food to southern Nevada families and prevent hunger. Three Square also partners with Perkins Elementary in providing a backpack program, through which kids who qualify take home a backpack full of food every weekend to sustain them until school meals are again provided the following week.
Bren McClean, whose child attends Perkins elementary, noticed that the backpack program was not meeting the needs of all the children, as well as other members of the community such as seniors. McClean, along with her father, Assemblyman James Oscarson, and County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, approached Three Square and were able to arrange a partnership that includes local food delivery once a month. The mobile pantry focuses supplying wholesome food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables that are usually not available through other food pantries.
Friday’s inaugural event was celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony before the first car drove up for food. McClean, Congressman Crescent Hardy, and Commissioner Kirkpatrick spoke briefly on the benefit this would bring to the community.
Congressman Hardy presented certificates of thanks to Three Square and the Moapa community for their help in making the mobile food pantry a reality.
“This is an exciting day for our residents as this is the first food pantry program in Moapa,” McClean said “Today we recognize the coming together of individuals and businesses dedicated to strengthening our community.”
Kirkpatrick agreed. “Anytime we can help kids by getting them good food, we can help their health, their education and their future,” she said. “This is an investment in the community.”
Kirkpatrick and Hardy both pitched in along with the many volunteers to help load, package, and distribute the food to waiting members of the community.
Crates of potatoes, apples, tomatoes, and squash were divided and apportioned into 200 bags for delivery. Volunteers worked quickly and efficiently in the hot sun. In addition to the fresh produce, the volunteers also distributed bottles of sports drink, wheat crackers, long grain rice, fresh bread, bagels, and hot dog buns, protein bars, and peanut butter crackers.
Three Square plays an important part in preventing hunger in southern Nevada explained the organization’s public relations officer Jodi Tyson.
“Three Square provides 38 million pounds of food to southern Nevada through Clark, Nye, Esmeralda, and Lincoln counties,” Tyson said. “The advantage of working with Three Square is that over 40 percent of the food we are able to source is fresh produce.”
Perkins Elementary School principal Hal Mortensen said that he is excited for the difference that the program will make for students and families at his school.
“This will be great!” he said. “They already come out every week with the backpack program and now we will be able to supplement that with fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Congressman Hardy agreed. “For me these are the kinds of programs that really benefit the less fortunate,” he said. “Community partnerships like this one are so much more productive and beneficial than those that are run by big government.”
The mobile food pantry will be open on the first Friday of every month from 2-4pm at the Moapa Community Center in the area between the fire station and the park. The pantry is open to all residents of Moapa Valley who are in need.
The next delivery is scheduled for April 1, with the May delivery scheduled for May 6.
Anyone who wishes to donate to Three Square to help end hunger can do so by going to their website www.threesquare.org.
