The nearly 400,000 food insecure people living in Southern Nevada are getting a lifeline this week — as they have every spring for 19 years — from those who love to eat out. Three Square Food Bank, Nevada’s largest hunger-relief operation, is holding its annual Restaurant Week, June 1-12.
The valley-wide dining event recruits more than 300 eateries to craft and promote special prix fixe menus. When diners select these exclusive three-course meals, up to $6 from each meal goes to Three Square, which turns that money into supplies for food banks. Restaurant Week does so well — more than 10 million donated meals have sprung from previous events — that restaurants often extend the availability of the prix fixe menus by a week or two.
Meeting the needs of food insecure people has grown more important in the wake of cost-of-living increases — especially in the grocery store — and the reduction of federal funds for the poor. The Trump administration also instituted work requirements for adults receiving SNAP benefits…