LAS VEGAS — Roughly 16 percent of people living in Clark County are food insecure, according to Three Square Food Bank.
While food distribution trucks and pantries are visible parts of the fight against hunger, the work inside Three Square’s Hunger Campus plays an equally important role.
Call center staff field requests from community members seeking food assistance, SNAP benefits and energy help.
“We receive phone calls from the community seeking assistance, where it be food assistance, SNAP assistance, energy assistance, and the things that we do here that we’re able to help our community,” said Nolga Valadez, who oversees the Senior Hunger Campus.
The center houses Three Square’s Golden Groceries program, which serves people 60 and older.
Valadez has worked at Three Square for a decade. She has overseen the Senior Hunger Campus since its creation during the pandemic.
“We got a bigger space and were able to assist more of our community because the need was so much there,” Valadez said.
The center continues to see calls from people who previously did not need assistance.
“People often have to choose on what to do. Do I buy food? Do I pay my bills? Do I pay for my medication? Places like this are so needed, because we do see a lot of people that perhaps in the past didn’t need the help, and now they’re calling us,” Valadez said.
The call center also helps people apply for Medicaid.
“I can tell you one time we helped a neighbor that did not have health insurance and we helped her apply for Medicaid. And because she was able to go to the doctor, and get the help that she needed, they were able to early find that she had breast cancer and were able to take care of that,” Valadez said.
“Stories like this are really touching and it really shows the importance of the work that we do,”
The work is personal for Valadez. Her family came to the U.S. from Cuba and faced food insecurity.
“We faced challenges and some days we didn’t know where, you know, if we were going to have a next meal. It is very fulfilling to know, to do this job and to know that I am helping,” Valadez said.
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