Food bank’s troubled predecessor thing of past

Less than a year has passed since Three Square, a local nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger, took over where the shuttered Community Food Bank of Clark County left off.

But the agency already is expanding and on track to provide 10 million pounds of food this year to more than 200 local charities, churches and other organizations that help the poor.

The nonprofit also has been busy building a solid reputation far removed from the controversy that surrounded its predecessor.

"They're doing a phenomenal job," said Phil Zepeda, a spokesman for Feeding America, a national network of food banks. "They're what Las Vegas really needs."

Three Square assumed local food bank operations last December, not long after the 30-year-old Community Food Bank closed amid allegations that it had been selling food and other donations it should have given away.

Three Square, an organization founded by Eric Hilton, the son of the late Conrad N. Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotel chain, opened its own food bank in the same 50,000-square-foot warehouse in which Community Food Bank had been housed, at 4190 N. Pecos Road, near Craig Road.

The warehouse, which was financed several years ago in part by $3.2 million in county and community development block grant funds from Clark County, was transferred to Three Square under a deed of trust.

From there the agency distributes food from a long list of donors including Albertsons, Tyson Foods and WalMart, to organizations that feed the poor, including Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, the Salvation Army and the Las Vegas Rescue Mission.

In May, Three Square spent $6.5 million to buy the 70,000-square-foot building next door in order to create a "full-service anti-hunger campus," including a kitchen in which to prepare meals for distribution to other agencies.

The expansion comes "at a time when the economy has never been so challenging, but at a time when people in need couldn't be suffering more," said Julie Murray, the 48-year-old CEO of Three Square.

Murray outlined Three Square's five-year plan to increase the amount of food it distributes to 49 million pounds a year, enough to sustain the estimated 210,000 Clark County residents, about half of them children, who live in poverty.

The agency, whose $4.1 million budget comes mainly from foundations, and individual and corporate donors, will kick off a capital campaign in the coming weeks to help fund its ongoing expansion.

It also is collaborating with UNLV on a "hunger gap analysis" to be completed this year. The study will identify the valley's neediest neighborhoods by ZIP code, Murray said.

"It will tell us where there are gaps," she said.

Zepeda said Three Square has become a national model for other food banks in his network, focusing on "increasing the amount of food that had been distributed to agencies by the previous food bank."

His appraisal was a far cry from what his organization discovered just over a year ago about the Community Food Bank.

Feeding America, previously known as America's Second Harvest, in August 2007 yanked Community Food Bank's membership after finding it had been selling some of the donations it had received, including groceries, toiletries, even camping equipment.

The Feeding America network, which helps route to food banks billions of pounds of donated grocery products from national manufacturers and retailers each year, sent staffers and even hired private investigators posing as clients to visit the food bank several times. They were able to purchase food that was meant to be given away, Zepeda said.

The sales were separate from small, set "shared maintenance fees" that charities nationwide pay by the pound to food banks for such goods.

The Community Food Bank, for example, charged agencies a shared maintenance fee of 18 cents per pound. Three Square, by comparison, charges 9 cents per pound.

But Community Food Bank also was selling items at warehouse sales, Feeding America said, which constituted a "serious violation of the core values" of the network.

Administrators at the food bank vehemently denied the allegations at the time.

The episode effectively forced the food bank's closure, and led to opportunity for Three Square, which immediately began reaching out to local organizations that feed the poor.

"We've had a great relationship with them," said Phillip Hollon, director of residential services for Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, which this month supplemented its food programs with more than 15,000 pounds of food from Three Square, including green beans, spaghetti sauce and beef stew. "They're there as a support mechanism for us."

Before Catholic Charities partnered with Three Square, the charity had to buy supplemental food at retail prices, Hollon said.

Three Square "has saved us an enormous amount of money," he said.

Murray said she's proud of what Three Square has accomplished in less than a year of operation.

"If we weren't in business, so many people would be suffering," she said. "To think that much food is going to people who need it gives me great pride and satisfaction."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.