Just nine ingredients are needed to cook white bean turkey chili. It sounds easy. Right?

Oh, and you’ll also need a knife to chop the onions with, and a can opener, and a burner and pot to cook the turkey and chili, and a way of getting the ingredients, and money to pay for the food.

Given those conditions that are all necessary to create a meal, cooking turkey chili may be more than meets the eye. It brings to the table the topic of food insecurity.

According to 2023 data from the national nonprofit Feeding America, there are 274,430 Southern Nevada residents—that’s 1 in 8 people—who are food insecure, meaning they don’t have consistent access to enough food to lead a healthy lifestyle. The statistics are higher for seniors and children, with about 1 in 6 children living in a food-insecure household in the region.

There are many contributing factors to food insecurity. Mobility issues and the price of groceries are two of the biggest. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food prices increased 9.9% in 2022 and are predicted to increase another 5.8% in 2023, and 2.9% in 2024.

“I used to shop for $100 worth of items. Now that’s three items at the grocery store,” says Alma Valencia, a single mother of eight who lives south of Downtown—a neighborhood with one of the highest food insecurity rates in the Valley, according to Three Square Food Bank. “With my kids, it’s so expensive.”

While at a community market operated by the Just One Project, Valencia tells the Weekly that the cost of groceries is the biggest barrier to being able to get enough healthy food for her family. Her kids drink about a gallon of juice per day, and it has gotten more difficult to be able to afford groceries at current, inflation-driven prices.

Valencia receives food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). However, after pandemic emergency SNAP benefits ended in March, she says the assistance is often not enough to cover food expenses and she sometimes must choose between paying bills and buying groceries.

“When we get to the end of the month, it’s running out and it’s hard,” she says.

Getting the Ingredients

Valencia’s family is included among 414,182 individuals, or 17.8% of Clark County residents, who receive SNAP benefits, according to data from the Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services. Nevada is in the top 10 states with the highest SNAP participation rates, according to U.S. News & World Report.

And while food stamps can help, not everyone who could benefit from them can access them. According to Feeding America’s 2023 Map the Meal Gap report, 1 in 3 people facing hunger are unlikely to qualify for SNAP, which is administered based on income eligibility requirements. A household’s net income must be near or below the federal poverty line, “between $39,000 and $60,000 for a family of four as of January 2023,” according to the report.

That’s where local organizations like the Just One Project can step in. The organization has four no-cost community markets available in the Las Vegas Valley to low-income individuals, families and seniors. The only requirement to use the market is that you make an appointment.

“With wages and the cost of living now, we have so many people that are just barely making it,” says founder and CEO Brooke Neubauer. “We get a lot of people that come to our location that say ‘I make $1 too much an hour to be eligible for SNAP, so now I’m choosing between food or the lights or taking my child to the doctor.’ How do you make those choices?”

She’s standing in front of crates of onions, potatoes, yams, garlic, citrus and apples. Rows of the community market are lined with canned and packaged goods like beans, tuna and grains. There are also refrigerators for produce, dairy products, eggs and frozen items including meat. Clients like Valencia check in at the front of the market and are matched with a case worker who helps them shop during their first visit and can connect them with other services.

“We walk with the clients on the first visit because we really want to encourage them to stay away from the sweets and encourage them more toward the healthy stuff,” Neubauer says.

Ed Nairn checks in with a case worker at the market. “I haven’t eaten meat since 1967,” Nairn says. “But the kids eat everything.”

The 82-year-old is retired and the primary caregiver for two kids ages 8 and 13. The kids are enrolled in SNAP benefits, and he used to receive $637 monthly. This year, that amount dropped to $29 monthly. “That’s enough for a loaf of bread and milk,” he says.

But he’s able to make it work by coming to the community market once a month. It allows Nairn to select fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, proteins, grains, even frozen meals and household items like tissue and dish soap.

According to Neubauer, shopping at the client-choice market can help households save an average of $250 per visit. “That’s a light bill … a tire repair. And about $300 is the average cost that displaces someone,” she says.

The nonprofit sees its community market as an opportunity to connect clients with their other in-house programs which include rapid rehousing, homelessness prevention and financial literacy.

Poverty and homelessness can contribute to food insecurity, Neubauer says. And with rents having soared since the pandemic, many households were at higher risk of being cost-burdened (paying more than 50% of income toward housing costs), missing rent payments and being evicted.

Earlier in 2023, Nairn’s rent increased so much that he could no longer afford it.

“I paid rent on time for 14 years. When the rent went up, they told us to pay up or get out,” Nairn says. Without the Just One Project’s assistance in finding an affordable home and applying for a Section 8 voucher, he might have ended up homeless, he adds.

The Recipe

To make white bean turkey chili, you’ll need vegetable oil, ground turkey, onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, Cannellini beans, spices (ground cumin and chili powder), dried oregano and chili sauce.

“Sometimes reading a recipe is enough to make someone not want to try to make the meal,” says Joe Leininger, executive chef of Three Square Food Bank. “This recipe is easy to follow and the ingredients are SNAP-friendly and easy to find.”

The food bank—which works with 150 agency partners that serve and distribute food in Clark, Lincoln, Nye and Esmeralda Counties—prepares 900 meals for kids and 200 for seniors daily. Leininger helms the kitchen, which pumps out dishes like chicken Parmesan, salmon or tacos with side salads or fresh fruit.

He starts the chili by heating oil in a pan and adding ground turkey. “This is a healthier version of chili,” he says. “By using turkey instead of ground beef, you lower the saturated fat.”

The recipe wouldn’t be doable if you didn’t have a proper burner, knives or a pot to cook in—which might be the issue in the case of someone who was homeless or didn’t have access to a kitchen, he says while chopping garlic and onion.

It’s something you might not think about if you already have all of those things. But bear in mind that pallets of free canned goods are no good without a can opener; a giant butternut squash cannot be prepared without a large knife; and a frozen pizza can’t be cooked without an oven.

Children and seniors might have a harder time meeting these conditions of access, compared with the rest of the population. To remove these kinds of barriers, Three Square serves prepared meals in a way that makes sense.

“[Kids’ meals] are really easy: turkey sandwich, fruit, veggies, graham crackers, Goldfish,” Leininger says. “The sandwich is deconstructed. They get the whole wheat bread, cheese [and] turkey to make their own sandwich,” he says, adding diced tomatoes, chili sauce, rinsed beans, chili powder, ground cumin and dried oregano to the pan.

Kids’ meals are packaged with the help of volunteers and distributed at local libraries. Senior meals are also distributed at libraries, but are served as community meals. Home deliveries for seniors also are available.

“With the senior meals, they have the option [to] take the meal to go. [But] we’d like them to stay because the whole point of the meal is to have everyone get together and eat together,” Leininger says. “Isolation’s an issue, too. If you’re here alone [or] you’re by yourself, at least this way, you get to eat with 200 potential friends.”

And with that, the white bean turkey chili is cooked and ready to eat.

Nutrition

In addition to low saturated fat from the ground turkey, “By using the white beans, you up the fiber and protein. So, it’s filling and pretty good for you,” Leininger says.

He works with Three Square’s registered dietitian, Sheena Skelton, on meal planning to make sure their food programs are nutritious and contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

“With our kids program, [nutrition guidelines] are pretty well laid out because they are federal programs. … The USDA puts out very specific guidelines,” Skelton says. “[We’re] making sure that there are foods that not only conform to those, but also are something that kids actually want to eat … and making sure it makes sense for their development, and that they can focus in the classroom.”

At the end of the day, the food we eat should be helping us function and live healthy lives in the long term. But according to a 2017 study by the USDA, food insecurity is “strongly related to the likelihood of chronic disease in general, to the number of chronic conditions afflicting the sufferer, and to self-assessed health.”

The study of 41,854 adults living at or below 200% of the poverty line found that adults in households with very low food security were 15.3% more likely to have any chronic illness than adults in households with high food security.

“People who don’t have enough access to food are certainly at greater risk of developing chronic diseases like obesity and heart disease, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes,” Skelton explains. “And when you don’t have proper nutrition, it makes it very, very difficult to manage those conditions. … You need to eat in a certain way, but you don’t always have access to the things you do need.”

She adds that people in poverty, disproportionately people of color, are also at higher risk of food insecurity itself and chronic illnesses associated with it. That’s why it’s so important to have nutrition integrated in food assistance programs.

Moreover, having a choice of nutritious foods can lead to even better experiences and health outcomes, Skelton says.

“When I think about SNAP—and that’s the way a lot of our food pantries are designed—it allows individuals to be served with dignity because they’re allowed to pick out the foods that are appropriate for them. … They could be managing a health condition or trying to prevent one, or just trying to live the healthy lifestyle that they want,” she says.

At the Just One Project, Neubauer says doctors have even written prescriptions for patients to start coming to their community market.

“We get a lot of doctors that refer their clients to us,” Neubauer says. “We had a senior client a while back. And she said, ‘My doctor gave me a prescription with your address and phone number on it, and said that I had diabetes and that I needed to start coming here for fresh food.’ And it completely changed her health trajectory. She was hospitalized much less.”

Community

We all need to eat. That is a vast common ground for humanity. And it’s going to take the community’s awareness and action to help those who may be struggling to put food on the table.

According to a 2023 report from the USDA, more households experienced “very low food security” last year nationwide compared with 2021. Approximately 6.8 million or 5.1% of households experienced disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake because they lacked money and other resources for food in 2022. That statistic is significantly higher than the 3.8% of households recorded in 2021.

Ironically, the prevalence of hunger has increased nationwide since the close of the pandemic. The end of emergency programs, inflation and housing costs have taken their toll, and many of our neighbors in Las Vegas are struggling.

Neubauer’s plan of attack is to focus on food deserts, or impoverished areas with limited access to affordable and healthy food. The Just One Project is getting ready to add two more community markets in the Las Vegas Valley in 2024. It also delivers 25,000 meals per month through its Meals on Wheels program.

“If you’re in a food desert, where are you going to get groceries? Maybe you’re in 89115 and you don’t even have an actual grocery store. So as soon as you’re born in that ZIP code, you’re food insecure. I think that’s a huge thing that people need to realize,” Neubauer says. “Access to fresh food should not be a luxury based on your ZIP code.”

Over at Three Square, senior outreach manager Nolga Valadez says the cost of living is one of the biggest culprits of food insecurity.

“With inflation, the price of food has gone up so much since the pandemic that, where people were able to purchase X amount of items for X amount of dollars, now that has almost doubled,” Valadez says. “And if you’re still making the same income, with rents going up and everything going up, there may be lack of funds to be able to purchase the foods that are needed, [even] with SNAP benefits.”

Connecting people with available services at Three Square and their community partners can help combat that, she adds.

“My team spends time here answering phones as well as in the community doing face-to-face outreach,” she says. “A lot of times when we’re talking to our neighbors, often the reaction we get is, I didn’t know Three Square did all of that. … That’s why it’s so important that we have outreach.”

Information about volunteer opportunities and how to get help is available at thejustoneproject.org and threesquare.org.

Places to get free food in Las Vegas

There are food banks like Three Square, which store food. There are agency partners like the Just One Project, which distribute that food to the community on a large scale. And then there are smaller community food pantries and gardens, which are more localized and can focus on specific neighborhoods.

Las Vegas is home to several spots where locals can find food to supplement their grocery shopping. Here are a few worth mentioning.

LAS VEGAN FOOD PANTRY

Born out of the pandemic in 2021, the Las Vegan Food Pantry provides free boxes of plant-based products to the public. The nonprofit believes in collaborating with other community organizations, and its operation is run out of warehouse space at the United Movement Organized Kindness in the Corridor of Hope. All you have to do is reserve a box by going to lasveganfoodpantry.org.

THE OBODO COLLECTIVE

The Historic Westside nonprofit Obodo Collective focuses on breaking multigenerational cycles of poverty, and a big part of that has to do with the food folks eat. With 26 garden beds and 26 fruit trees, the nonprofit harvested more than 500 pounds of food in October and November. The nonprofit serves residents of its surrounding neighborhood with its UPick Market every Saturday from 7 a.m. until 12 p.m.

THE SOLIDARITY FRIDGE

The Solidarity Fridge is located in East Las Vegas at 5502 Blackthorn Drive. The community food pantry stands alongside a “giving garden,” seed share and free library. “The Solidarity Fridge is another example of an Indigenous-led initiative focused on food sovereignty and rematriation to promote the community’s well-being,” reads a statement from the organization. Not only does the pantry provide supplemental food for the surrounding neighborhood, it also hosts educational workshops and events to serve the community.

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