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Mikell Goheen and Three Square Food Bank
Mikell Goheen may be small in stature but she makes up for it in heart. Goheen is a Volunteer
Administrator for Three Square Food Bank in Las Vegas. Food insecurity affects approximately
315,000 people in Southern Nevada. A large part of which are children with a staggering 58% of chil-
dren in Clark County schools that have to be on the free to reduced-priced meal plans based on their
family’s income. Three Square is a distribution center that works with approximately 1,300 community
partners to get food into the hands of individuals and families at risk for hunger in Southern Nevadan
Counties such as Clark, Nye, Lincoln, and Esmerelda County. Three Square rescues more than 1 million
pounds of food through its retail partners each month, this is equal to more than 800,000 meals.
I had met Goheen when I took an orientation tour of Three Square and was impressed with her
knowledge of the massive facility. Goheen started as a corporate volunteer with her previous employer.
She was so inspired by the organization that she came back on her own as an individual volunteer and
recently made the career change to become a Volunteer Administrator. Luckily I was able to sit with
her to discuss more about this operation and to see how others can help.
Ansell: Three Square offers a bunch of different programs. An example is the Summer Food Service
Program which provides nutritious meals to children 18 years old and younger during summer vaca-
tion, what other programs does Three Square offer?
Goheen: Yes that program is specifically for the kids. There are other kids programs besides the
Summer Food Service like Backpack for Kids which is a weekend meal backpack that we pack and
provide to different schools throughout the community. We also help families. We have our Mobile
Grocery Giveaway which is like a food pantry on wheels. We go to 13 different schools where each
school has identified families that live close by that are food insecure. We distribute large bags of shelf
stable food and fresh produce to about 200-300 families per site once a month. We also have programs
that benefit seniors like the Senior Share Program which offers them shelf stable items and fresh pro-
duce. These are some of the main programs but we have other ones as well.
Ansell: That is great, it is so important for kids to be able to get proper nutrition because it can affect
their development as well as how well they do in school.
Goheen: Yes we actually partner with UNLV nutritionists that guide us in what we should provide in
our menu, like how much protein there should be, so we are not just blindly doing it.
Ansell: Is there a certain time of year where there is more need or would you say that any time of
year there is need?
Goheen: Food insecurity is an all year long thing, unfortunately it does not just stop. We are always
busy and always in need of volunteers. There are more programs during the school year because we
partner with some of the schools. Also during the holiday season we try to ramp up being a volunteer
because we are still providing food into the community even though people are so busy.
Ansell: People may envision the hungry as being the homeless and unemployed, is it true that most
people that Three Square provides for are homeless and jobless?
Goheen: Three Square provides assistance to anyone that needs it, whether it be someone who is
homeless, unemployed, or those who are employed but still need help getting food on the table. The
recession and unemployment rates hit Las Vegas hard, and while things are improving, we are still see-
ing a need for assistance while people get back on their feet. The face of hunger has changed and we are
doing our best to reach everyone who might need a helping hand.
Ansell: OK so there are different ways that people can help Three Square, what are the different
ways to help?
Goheen: Volunteering is going to be my first suggestion because I am on the volunteer team! We
accept volunteers ages 10 and up so it is something where you can come and bring your family and
spend some time with us. This year we are on track to have about 23,000 volunteers this equals out
to about 56 full time employees. As we continue to grow we set higher and higher goals every year so
we need more and more volunteers. On average we see anywhere from 100-200 volunteers per day.
Without our volunteers we would not be able to produce everything that we do in the community.
Ansell: What is a typical day like for a volunteer?
Goheen: It depends on what you sign up for. As a volunteer you can do things like being in the
kitchen packing Kids Café meals or you can be in the volunteer room sorting food or can goods from
food drives. You could be packing bags of produce. There are a variety of things to do. We even have
volunteers who do data entry.
Ansell: I recall seeing that Three Square can even help people acquire job skills.
Goheen: We work with people from the welfare division who need volunteer hours. It’s good
because it is similar to on the job training, we are teaching them skill sets. We also work with
Opportunity Village who sends us young adults and they are able to get job skills.
Ansell: What is the best way for people to get a hold of Three Square so that they can volunteer or
donate?
Goheen: www.threesquare.org -our website is very user friendly. There is a volunteer section where
you can sign up on the website. You can even apply for a group or team to volunteer with us. Once you
sign up you get access to our volunteer calendar where you schedule yourself for the different dates,
times and activities that you want to do. It is really convenient because you don’t have to call or go any-
where you can do it all online. As far as donations we do mailers so you can donate through the mail or
online. You can even show up here at the building, we have bins so that you can drop something off.
Ansell: What other things besides signing up to be a volunteer can people find on the website?
Goheen: The Three Square website includes information on how a food bank works, overviews of all
the program services we provide, hunger statistics, event listings for fundraisers and food drives, and
an online donation form so that you can help right away. The website is also a resource for people in
the community to find the food pantry or services nearest to them so that they can get the help quickly.
Ansell: Three Square also offers some alternative services that people can utilize such as catering.
Can you elaborate on that?
Goheen: That is one of my favorite things we do here because it is so unique! We do have a full size
kitchen that prepares the Kids Café meals but we also offer onsite and offsite catering. We have ban-
quet areas where you can rent out a space if you ever need to host a party or a meeting. Our 4 full time
chefs are always busy with our different banquet and catering requests. The cool thing is, not only is
their food amazing but all the money gets donated to our programs. It gets circled back to the cause
and mission of Three Square. I never realized that we had so many food insecure families and indi-
viduals in our local community. It breaks your heart but realizing that Three Square can put an end to
hunger and being a part of that is really amazing. We are on our way to ending hunger!
Three Square Food Bank
4190 N. Pecos Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89115
(702)644-3663
www.threesquare.org
by: Julie Ansell