The founder of a small church in Hfinisherson, which has been distributing food to neighbors in need for more than 14 years, says he doesn’t understand why the Three Square Food Bank decided to end its partnership, leaving the church without a source of food donations.
Ed Bruning, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church for three decades, says he’s reluctant to speak publicly about Three Square’s resolve to sever its relationship with the church.
“I don’t need to hurt the project of feeding people, so I don’t need to give Three Square a bad day, but the way they’ve acted and what they continue to do has absolutely embittered me,” Bruning said in an interview.
Three Square says it distributed more than 37 million food network partners in Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye counties in 2023, but Bruning says Three Square has unrealistic expectations of its partners, given its lack of guidance, documented in state audits.
The pastor says he pleaded with Three Square CEO and President Beth Martino, who joined the nonprofit a year ago: “She said we weren’t philosophically aligned and she had to rush to get to a meeting, but she was still taking a look at it. I go further, and that was the last time I heard from her.
“I think what I really said is that I thought we had philosophical differences in how we seek to serve other people in relation to our two main goals, which are to serve other people with protection and dignity,” Martino said in an interview. declined to elaborate, referring to an expired Nevada Department of Agriculture inspection last year that knew of deficiencies in the operation conducted by Nuestro Salvador volunteers.
Our Savior’s statewide review in November of last year “identified food protection issues, lack of records, and insufficient training. “
“At the time I was in the hospital and there was no one who could provide the data to the Ministry of Agriculture,” says Bruning.
The state has reported that Our Savior’s food distribution efforts will be suspended pending Three Square. Bruning says there is no procedure for Three Square members to appeal when the food bank ends a partnership.
Food distribution agencies “must maintain their eligibility by complying with state and federal regulations, aggregating TEFAP program needs and food protection needs,” the Department of Agriculture said in an article to the Current.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a USDA program, provides food to others who do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) because their source of income exceeds the allowable threshold.
According to the National Council on Aging, about 2 million seniors who were food insecure were eligible for SNAP benefits in 2021 because their incomes were too high.
To qualify for USDA food, one will need to have an ID, evidence of Nevada residency, and a household income source that does not exceed 185% of the federal poverty level.
“The Department of Agriculture said, ‘Three Squares, you’re the regional food bank. It is your duty to exercise this partner. Go out and exercise it, and after you’ve exercised it, come back here and make sure we’re doing it right,” Bruning said.
Martino says Three Square has worked with Our Savior’s and provided the necessary education to its 150 steadfast partners.
Bruning says the church met Three Square’s needs as productively as possible, given the food bank’s lack of smart practices. He says distribution sites are largely on their own, with no education or guidelines.
Martino declined to say whether the church met Three Square’s requirements. “It’s an ongoing procedure and I wouldn’t need to say anything that concrete. “
He said he didn’t know Three Square had severed its partnership with other distribution agencies.
Audits through the Nevada Department of Agriculture detail a number of deficiencies, in addition to those known at Our Savior’s, other Three Square partners, and Three Square itself, such as:
The findings imply a need for Three Square to “improve TEFAP program education and communication” with partner agencies, “as well as conduct site reviews and technical assistance throughout the year to ensure program compliance,” the Department said. of Agriculture in its evaluation of Three Square. Square. Square.
“As a result of this audit, we have worked very diligently and as temporarily as possible to resolve all of those issues,” Martino said.
Bruning says Our Savior’s, a small worship space in downtown Henderson, had a large footprint on the pantry space.
“We used to be Three Square’s agency partner of the year. We used a flatbed truck to get food at retail outlets,” he says. But Three Square ended up cornering the market: buying refrigerated trucks and making deals with outlets to exclusively sell the leftover food and distribute it to agencies like Our Savior’s.
Nevadans average about $295 per week in groceries, the highest figure in the Mountain West region and the second highest in the country of California, according to the HelpAdvisor report based on U. S. Census data. U. S. The national average is $270.
“The average weekly food budget deficit is $24. 23 per user in the Three Square service area. For a family of four, this equates to about $5,040 per year,” the agency’s website says.
According to Three Square, 1 in 7 Southern Nevadans don’t know where their next meal will come from and 1 in five young people live in a food-insecure household.
“What our partners have told us is that they are seeing increased demand and want more food on their shelves. So we try to do everything we can to meet that demand,” Martino says of Three Square’s commitment to purchase. more food. This effort resulted in a loss of $12 million in 2022, according to the nonprofit’s tax return.
Our Savior is located in the 89015 zip code, where the annual source of capita income in 2022 is $32,000, according to U. S. Census data. U. S. Almost a fraction of the region’s citizens are elderly, many of whom live alone.
Golden Groceries, a program imaginable thanks to a grant from Three Square, has provided food to accompany seniors during weekends when there are few pantries open, according to Bruning.
“On Saturday morning we had cars covered in the streets,” he says. “They were queuing in the morning. ”
The traffic jams led the city to sanction the church with traffic violations.
“We tried several answers across the city, but they were expensive and we couldn’t meet their demands,” says Bruning. “We feel compelled to participate in the program in 2022. “
Meeting the desires of those in need in downtown Henderson, amid the city’s redevelopment efforts, has been a challenge not only for Our Savior’s, but also for St. Louis. John’s. Timothy’s, a church with a feeding program that was popular with other homeless people. People even local businesses complained, according to Bruning. The effort has been modified to discourage other homeless people from benefiting.
“The city doesn’t need to acknowledge that there are other homeless people in Henderson,” Bruning says.
Simply getting transportation to a food source can be a challenge for community residents, Bruning says. “Do they have a vehicle available at will?Can they accomplish what they want with wheelchairs and other mobility devices that have a limited range? »
Bruning says Nuestro Salvador has more than food for his former pantry customers.
“They are depressed and fearful people. This is partly due to fears about the economy and the presidential election. Anyone who pays attention to the negativity of the news, it’s very easy to be afraid in a boring and inexplicable sense. Our volunteers made them feel like family.
by Dana Gentry, Nevada Current July 8, 2024
The founder of a small church in Hfinisherson, which has been distributing food to neighbors in need for more than 14 years, says he doesn’t understand why the Three Square Food Bank decided to end its partnership, leaving the church without a source of food donations.
Ed Bruning, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church for three decades, says he’s reluctant to speak publicly about Three Square’s resolve to sever its relationship with the church.
“I don’t need to hurt the project of feeding people, so I don’t need to give Three Square a bad day, but the way they’ve acted and what they continue to do has absolutely soured me,” Bruning said in an interview.
Three Square says it distributed more than 37 million food network partners in Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye counties in 2023, but Bruning says Three Square has unrealistic expectations of its partners, given its lack of guidance, documented in state audits.
The pastor says he pleaded with Three Square CEO and President Beth Martino, who joined the nonprofit a year ago: “She said we weren’t philosophically aligned and needed to rush to a meeting, but would take a look at it. I go further, and that was the last time I heard from her.
“I think what I really said is that I thought we had philosophical differences in how we seek to serve other people in relation to our two main goals, which are to serve other people with protection and dignity,” Martino said in an interview. declined to elaborate, referring to an expired Nevada Department of Agriculture inspection last year that knew of deficiencies in the operation conducted by Nuestro Salvador volunteers.
Our Savior’s statewide review in November of last year “identified food protection issues, lack of records, and insufficient training. “
“At the time I was in the hospital and there was no one who could provide the data to the Ministry of Agriculture,” says Bruning.
The state has advised that Our Savior’s food distribution efforts be suspended pending Three Square. Bruning says there is no procedure for Three Square partners to appeal when the food bank ends a partnership.
Food distribution agencies “must maintain their eligibility by complying with state and federal regulations, aggregating TEFAP program needs and food protection needs,” the Department of Agriculture said in an article to the Current.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a USDA program, provides food to others who do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) because their source of income exceeds the allowable threshold.
According to the National Council on Aging, about 2 million seniors who were food insecure were eligible for SNAP benefits in 2021 because their incomes were too high.
To qualify for USDA food, one will need to have an ID, evidence of Nevada residency, and a household income source that does not exceed 185% of the federal poverty level.
“The Department of Agriculture said, ‘Three Squares, you’re the regional food bank. It is your duty to exercise this partner. Go out and exercise it, and after you’ve exercised it, come back here and make sure we’re doing it right,” Bruning said.
Martino says Three Square has worked with Our Savior’s and provided the necessary education to its 150 steadfast partners.
Bruning says the church met Three Square’s needs as productively as possible, given the food bank’s lack of smart practices. He says distribution sites are largely on their own, without education or guidelines.
Martino declined to say whether the church met Three Square’s requirements. “It’s an ongoing procedure and I wouldn’t need to say anything that concrete. “
He said he didn’t know Three Square had severed its partnership with other distribution agencies.
Audits through the Nevada Department of Agriculture detail a number of deficiencies, in addition to those known at Our Savior’s, other Three Square partners, and Three Square itself, such as:
The findings imply Three Square’s need to “enhance TEFAP program education and communication” with partner agencies, “as well as conduct site reviews and technical assistance throughout the year to ensure program compliance,” the Department of Agriculture noted in its assessment of Three Square. Square. Square.
“As a result of this audit, we have worked very diligently and as temporarily as possible to fix all of those issues,” Martino said.
Bruning says Our Savior’s, a small worship space in downtown Henderson, had a large footprint on the pantry space.
“We used to be Three Square’s agency partner of the year. We used a flatbed truck to get food at retail outlets,” he says. But Three Square ended up cornering the market: buying refrigerated trucks and making deals with outlets to exclusively sell the leftover food and distribute it to agencies like Our Savior’s.
Nevadans average about $295 per week in groceries, the highest figure in the Mountain West region and the second-highest in the country of California, according to the HelpAdvisor report based on U. S. Census data. U. S. The national average is $270.
“The average weekly food budget deficit is $24. 23 per user in the Three Square service area. For a family of four, this equates to about $5,040 per year,” the agency’s website says.
According to Three Square, 1 in 7 Southern Nevadans don’t know where their next meal will come from and 1 in five young people live in a food-insecure household.
“What our partners have told us is that they are seeing increased demand and want more food on their shelves. So we try to do everything we can to meet that demand,” Martino says of Three Square’s commitment to purchase. more food. This effort resulted in a loss of $12 million in 2022, according to the nonprofit’s tax return.
Our Savior is located in the 89015 zip code, where the annual source of capita income in 2022 is $32,000, according to U. S. Census data. U. S. Almost a fraction of the region’s citizens are elderly, many of whom live alone.
Golden Groceries, a program imaginable thanks to a grant from Three Square, has provided food to accompany seniors during weekends when there are few pantries open, according to Bruning.
“On Saturday morning we had cars covered in the streets,” he says. “They were queuing in the morning. ”
The traffic jams led the city to sanction the church with traffic violations.
“We tried several answers across the city, but they were expensive and we couldn’t meet their demands,” says Bruning. “We feel compelled to participate in the program in 2022. “
Meeting the desires of those in need in downtown Henderson, amid the city’s redevelopment efforts, has been a challenge not only for Our Savior’s, but also for St. Louis. John’s. Timothy’s, a church with a feeding program that was popular with other homeless people. People even local businesses complained, according to Bruning. The effort has been modified to discourage other homeless people from benefiting.
“The city doesn’t need to acknowledge that there are other homeless people in Henderson,” Bruning says.
Simply getting transportation to a food source can be a challenge for community residents, Bruning says. “Do they have a vehicle available at will?Can they accomplish what they want with wheelchairs and other mobility devices that have a limited range? »
Bruning says Nuestro Salvador has more than food for his former pantry customers.
“They are depressed and fearful people. This is partly due to fears about the economy and the presidential election. Anyone who pays attention to the negativity of the news, it’s very easy to be afraid in a boring and inexplicable sense. Our volunteers made them feel like family.
Nevada Current is part of the States Newsroom, a grant-funded nonprofit news network and donor coalition as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains its editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact Editor-in-Chief Hugh Jackson: info@nevadacurrent. com. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and X.
Dana Gentry is a vegan local and an award-winning investigative journalist. He graduated from Bishop Gorman High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Nevada Current is owned by the States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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