A nonprofit provides dinners to at-risk and houseless youths.
Most families are aware that qualifying students attending schools in the Washoe County School District receive two meals per school day, breakfast and lunch, on campus free of charge. But many of these children who live in low-income households still don’t have access to nutritious dinners when they’re not in school. The challenge is to ensure children are getting enough food outside of school hours.
That’s why Ray Roske and Steve Johnson started The Third Meal, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides gift cards to children who are at risk or experiencing homelessness, giving them the ability to buy dinners when food may not otherwise be available. The motto of the nonprofit is “dine with dignity,” and the goal for the founders was to replace the “walk of shame” — the trip to pick up blue backpacks full of weekend food made available in school auditoriums — with something less obvious but just as helpful. Instead, qualifying students are given physical gift cards or QR codes that they can use for dining at local restaurants. Currently, The Third Meal serves 30 families in Reno. The goal is to grow its reach throughout the Reno-Tahoe region to match those of the organization’s other sites, which serve about 300 students in the Denver, Colo., area and 200 in Oklahoma.
