LSSN began serving the Las Vegas Valley in 1985, when the social ministry operated a food pantry and clothing closet. After earning nonprofit status in 1996 and adopting our current name, we began expanding services. This year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary in service to low-income, food-desert, urban-core areas of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. In 2012, we moved into our current location and greatly expanded the client-choice, supermarket-style food pantry. In 2014, we added the Nutrition Education Kitchen, where clients can attend cooking demonstrations and healthy eating classes. Our Empowerment Center is designed to assess the needs of those we serve and help them obtain Nevada IDs and/or birth certificates, SNAP benefits, rental and/or utility assistance and employment-related services, including computer classes and resume writing assistance.

For seniors, we offer one morning a week of by-appointment shopping in the pantry, a Senior Nutrition Program Meal, which serves free, hot lunches each weekday afternoon at two partnering churches, and the fee-based Angels of Care program that provides in-home, non-medical assistance. LSSN, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and Lutheran Services in America, has served more than 200,000 people in the past 20 years.

Although Lutheran based, LSSN embraces its mission of expressing the Love of Christ by serving and caring for people in need by being open and inclusive in all the services we offer. We have an extensive non-discrimination policy, which applies to our employment practices as well as to our service practices.