Back on its feet, charity reaches for more

By Conor Shine

Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014 | 2 a.m.

On a recent Friday morning, dozens of people browsed shelves at the Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada food pantry, picking up canned food, produce and meat.

Such a sight would have been unimaginable a year ago, when the food pantry was a storage room that staff referred to as the “junk drawer” of the nonprofit’s campus at Las Vegas Boulevard and Owens Avenue.

Back then, patrons were given a bag of food each month with no say about what was included. Now, they can shop for themselves and choose up to 20 pounds of food to suit their families’ tastes.

The change, along with extended hours and a partnership with Three Square food bank that helps provide the food, has led to twice as many clients coming through the food pantry over the past year and a tenfold increase in the amount of food distributed. The revamped food pantry is one of many changes at Catholic Charities driven by new leadership.

“What I’ve been focusing on is taking a look at all these programs and services to say, ‘Are we getting the right level of outcomes?’ ” said Catholic Charities CEO Deacon Tom Roberts. “If we aren’t, we have to have the courage to take a fresh look at the program and change it up so we’re not trying to solve 2014 problems with 1980s solutions.”

Roberts joined the nonprofit in December 2012, during a time of crisis after the unexpected death of its longtime leader, Monsignor Patrick Leary.

Roberts, the founding general manager of the Forum Shops at Caesars and a former Station Casinos executive, joined the organization to guide it through the transition and leave once a new leader was found. But after an exhaustive search, the nonprofit’s board decided the best candidate was already in-house and, in June, offered Roberts the job.

He has brought business acumen and a for-profit mindset to Catholic Charities that challenges the organization to get the most out of every dollar it spends. He peppers his speech with business jargon, saying the organization needs to focus on “blocking and tackling,” meaning doing the little things right. But he also preaches the nonprofit’s mission of offering hope and compassion to clients.

Founded in 1941, Catholic Charities is one of Las Vegas’ oldest nonprofits and, with a $22 million annual budget, one of its largest.

Roberts has scoured the organization looking for new and better ways to provide the food, shelter and other services on which its clients rely.

For instance, the Catholic Charities’ day shelter, which offers homeless people a place to escape the summer heat and winter cold, has expanded to serve 300 people a day, up from 100, by moving into an unused administrative office.

Despite the improvements, there’s still more demand than the charity can meet, Roberts said. The organization’s overnight shelters are stuffed to capacity, while more than 1,000 people seek free meals on campus every day.

Looking forward, Roberts said he wants to continue building community partnerships, as Catholic Charities did with Three Square. He also is looking to spruce up the organization’s campus and advocate for more mental health services for clients.

“In the past 15 months, there is clearly a focus on collaboration and a focus on results,” Roberts said. “We can’t just be running programs to be running programs. We have to have services that make people’s lives better. Otherwise, we’re spinning our wheels.”