Fighting Weekend Hunger

2024 Grant Cycle

"Serving Our Kids Fights Weekend Hunger for Thousands of Clark County Students"

Every morning, more than 113,000 children in Clark County start their school day without enough to eat.

While many of these students receive breakfast and lunch at school during the week, thousands head home on Fridays unsure if they’ll eat again before Monday.

That’s where Serving Our Kids steps in.

“We do one thing, and that’s provide weekend meal bags for kids who don’t consistently have food over the weekends,” says Laurie Tanakaya, CEO of Serving Our Kids.

Each week during the school year, the organization distributes over 4,000 weekend meal bags to 97 elementary and middle schools in Clark County. For the upcoming year, the goal is to increase that number to 5,000.

Support from partners like The Bower Fund is making that growth possible. The Fund awarded grants to Serving Our Kids in both 2023 and 2024, helping ensure that fewer children go hungry over the weekend.

“The Bower Fund has been instrumental in our commitment to these children,” says Tanakaya. “When we say yes to a school, it’s our commitment that any child at that school that is part of the weekend meal bag program will have one every week for the entire school year. What The Bower Fund has helped us do is drive consistency in helping these kids.”

And the need continues to grow. Nearly one in four kids in Clark County now face food insecurity, a 23% increase from just a year ago.

And while it’s easy to assume food insecurity simply means hunger, Tanakaya emphasizes there is a distinction.

“Food insecurity means you don’t have consistent access to food to lead a healthy lifestyle,” says Tanakaya. “That means a child is going to school without knowing where their next meal is coming from. They don’t understand why there’s no food, and so they spend the day wondering if they’re going to eat that day, or that weekend. Not knowing is the insecure part.”

That kind of uncertainty can do more than leave a child hungry – It can impact behavior, concentration, and mental health. It’s something Serenity Baily, Site Coordinator for Communities In Schools, one of Serving Our Kids’ community partners, witnesses regularly.

“When adults don’t get enough to eat, we get ‘hangry,’” says Baily, who coordinates the delivery of weekend meal bags for Serving Our Kids at Walter Long Elementary. “We can’t function well until we get a food fix. Imagine how kids feel, being that hungry, but not being able to do anything about it.”

Every Friday, volunteers deliver the bags, which school staff then distribute to students.

“The students look forward to it,” says Baily. “All of them come to school on Friday when the bags arrive. It’s a big motivator.”

Internal surveys confirm the program’s positive impact. Among school coordinators, 42% report improved student health and wellness, 46% have seen better school attendance, and 38% note academic gains in students who receive the bags.

Currently, Serving Our Kids provides meal bags during 36 of the 40 weeks of the school year, pausing only during major holiday breaks. But the team is actively exploring how to expand.

“The feedback we’ve received is to try and provide bags all 40 weeks of the school year because it’s about the continuity,” says Tanakaya. “But what do we do then about the summer? Where could we provide the food from? We haven’t solved that one yet, but we’re working on it.”

Partnerships like the one with The Bower Fund are key to scaling services.

“As we’ve grown, the grant funding has become more critical,” Tanakaya says. “We do have fundraising events, and other regular donors. But as we continue to grow, grants will become an event bigger part of our funding portfolio.”

But to her, true partnership goes beyond dollars.

“Yes, the funding is extremely helpful and makes a difference, but the Bowers have helped us in so many other ways, and to me that’s the holistic part of the relationship. They volunteer at our events. They create meal bags. And they even sat down with us to talk strategy. They are a true community partner; in that we are helping each other be successful in our respective missions.”

To learn more about the Serving Our Kids Foundation – or to get involved – visit servingourkids.org.