LAS VEGAS, Nev. (November 30, 2022) — Southern Nevada-based education organizations, Serving Our Kids and Communities In Schools of Southern Nevada, (CIS), are expanding their efforts to increase the resources available to CCSD students thanks to a combined $200,000 donation from Google.
“Every child deserves to feel supported and secure in their school studies and not have to wonder when their next meal will be,” said Kate Franko, Google’s Regional Head of Data Center Public Affairs. “Serving Our Kids and Communities In Schools are both invaluable to our community. We at Google are honored to be able to help support their initiatives here in Clark County.”
Google’s donation to Serving Our Kids will cover costs to provide an incremental 800 children with a weekly, weekend meal bag during the school year. Each week, Serving Our Kids feeds 4,000 kids in 105 schools across Clark County who would otherwise go hungry.
“We are incredibly grateful for this generous donation from Google,” said Dale Darcas, Founder for Serving Our Kids Foundation. “There are thousands more food insecure children for us to serve across the valley and this donation will help us to feed hundreds more this school year.”
While CIS continues to serve over 60,000 students across all grade levels in Southern Nevada, they will use funds to support the match funding needs of schools in Southern Nevada with a focus for future funding to support schools in the City of Henderson. Having operated in CCSD for 18 years and currently serving 65 schools, CIS works to empower and ensure students graduate high school and are career ready.
“Our mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life,” said Tami Hance-Lehr, Chief Executive Officer and state director of Communities In Schools of Nevada. “Google’s generous donation is an investment in our firm commitment to support every child in every high-needs school across the valley. This gift adds more site coordinators on our school campuses, giving them the tools to do whatever it takes to eliminate the barriers that stand in the way of our students graduating and becoming career, college, and community ready.”
For more information or to make a donation to either organization, please visit https://www.servingourkids.org/ and www.cisnevada.org.
About Google in Nevada:
Google has called Nevada home since 2019, with data centers in Henderson and Storey County. The company has partnered with trusted community institutions across the state to bring digital skills training, grant funding, and other resources to more Nevadans. In Nevada, Grow with Google has partnered with more than 60 organizations to train more than 88,000 Nevadans in digital skills, including public libraries, chambers of commerce, community colleges, and more. Google.org has awarded over $1 million in grants to nonprofits and organizations based in Nevada.Since 2014, Google’s employees based in Nevada–including company matching contributions–have donated over $409,000 in charitable giving to nonprofits. Learn more about Google in Nevada at: g.co/economicimpact/nevada
About Serving Our Kids:
Serving Our Kids Foundation is dedicated to feeding and serving the needs of Clark County homeless, at risk and food insecure children by providing weekly, weekend meal bags to children who would otherwise go hungry when not in school. The Foundation relies on community organizations and volunteers to make this possible. For more information, visit http://www.servingourkids.org
About Communities In Schools of Nevada
Communities In Schools of Nevada (CIS) is the fifth-largest state office of the nation’s leading evidence-based dropout prevention organization that believes every child has potential – regardless of race, zip code or socioeconomic background – but may lack equal opportunity to succeed. CIS places caring, well-trained, full-time employees in underserved schools to build trusting relationships with students and families, assess their needs and remove the barriers they face to learn and graduate. CIS taps into a network of more than 120 agencies and nonprofits to meet student needs – literally bringing the community into the schools it serves. CIS has innovated ways to collaborate with partners during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure continuity of care, meeting students online, at home, or in the community to provide supports. Included in CIS’ strategies and culture are principles and practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a result, CIS breaks down immediate and systemic barriers to create and sustain equitable outcomes. In total, CIS serves more than 90,000 students, including 13 schools in Western Nevada, 13 schools in Northeastern Nevada, and 65 schools in Southern Nevada. Nationally, Communities In Schools provides services in more than 2,900 schools in 26 states and the District of Columbia, serving 1.7 million young people and their families every year. For more information, visit https://www.cisnevada.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
