More than 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children are at risk of losing legal representation after the federal contract supporting a nationwide network of nonprofit attorneys expired.
Many legal providers are continuing to represent children they already serve without pay. But organizations are increasingly unable to take new cases—leaving some children to navigate an immigration system, court hearings, and trained government attorneys on their own.
This is about more than legal paperwork. Attorneys help children understand their rights, seek protection from abuse, trafficking, neglect, or persecution, and connect with the support they need to build safe and stable lives.
As people of faith, we are called to care for children, welcome the stranger, and insist that every person is treated with dignity.
Nevada congregations can help by sharing trusted legal resources, supporting local nonprofit immigration services, protecting family confidentiality, and speaking out for stable legal representation for children.
In Northern Nevada, Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada’s Mother Cabrini Immigration Legal Services can be reached at 775-393-3877.
Earlier this month, we celebrated the 62nd Anniversary of the Wilderness Act. On September 3, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into law.
The law created the National Wilderness Preservation System, beginning with 9.1 million acres. Today, it includes more than 111 million acres of congressionally designated wilderness across 44 states and Puerto Rico. These places are protected for the use and enjoyment of the American people—for you.U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Wilderness supports clean air and water, wildlife habitat, solitude and quiet recreation. Many wilderness areas are also ancestral homelands and places of ongoing cultural and spiritual importance to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples. U.S. Forest Service
This anniversary also calls us to tell the fuller story. The idea of an “unpeopled wilderness” has too often overlooked Indigenous peoples’ long-standing relationships with, knowledge of, and stewardship of these lands. Expanding Indigenous leadership and participation is essential to the future of wilderness.
Today, wilderness protections remain part of a broader national conversation about conservation, energy development, mining, logging, recreation, and public access. The Department of the Interior has pursued reviews and changes to several public-land conservation policies, including the Public Lands Rule. Department of the Interior
The Wilderness Act reminds us that public lands are a shared trust—held not only for this generation, but for those yet to come.
When families struggle to keep a roof over their heads, children often experience:
More school absences
Interrupted learning
Higher levels of stress
Lower academic performance
Research consistently shows that housing instability makes it harder for students to thrive in school. Children who experience eviction or frequent moves are more likely to miss school and fall behind academically.
Here in Nevada, families are balancing rent, groceries, utility bills, and back-to-school expenses while housing costs remain out of reach for too many working households.
Housing is not just about where we live. It is about whether children and families have the stability they need to learn, grow, and thrive.
That is why Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada advocates for housing policies that help Nevada families remain safely housed.
Extreme heat is not just a weather issue. It is an education issue, a public-health issue, and an environmental-justice issue.
A new study highlighted by KNPR finds that when classroom temperatures rise above 73°F, students complete cognitive tasks more slowly and less accurately. Heat can also contribute to absenteeism and make it harder for children to learn.
But the burden is not shared equally. Students in under-resourced communities are more likely to attend schools with aging buildings, limited shade, and inadequate cooling. Many also return home to housing without reliable air conditioning.
In Nevada, extreme heat is no longer an occasional disruption. Our schools need plans that protect students and staff: monitoring classroom and bus temperatures, creating safe protocols for recess and athletics, investing in cooling and shade, and communicating clearly with families.
Every child deserves a safe place to learn. A student’s ZIP code should not determine whether their classroom is healthy, cool, and ready for learning.
September is Hunger Action Month, a nationwide invitation to learn about hunger, support our neighbors, and work toward a future in which everyone has enough nutritious food.
Here in Nevada, hunger is present in every community—rural and urban, northern and southern. The Food Bank of Northern Nevada reports that one in five Nevada children faces hunger, and it serves approximately 150,000 neighbors each month through its network of partner programs. In Southern Nevada, Three Square Food Bank continues to mobilize the community around food insecurity and access to healthy food.
Food banks and pantries are responding with extraordinary care. But charitable food alone cannot end hunger. Hunger Action Month calls us to offer immediate help while also asking why so many households must choose between groceries, rent, utilities, health care, and other basic needs.
For Lutherans, this work is rooted in faith. We pray, “Give us today our daily bread,” not only for ourselves, but for all God’s people. ELCA World Hunger reminds us that hunger is connected to poverty, wages, housing, health care, discrimination, and public policy. Feeding our neighbors and advocating for just systems are both expressions of our baptismal call to “strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”
Ways to take action in Nevada this September
Make hunger part of “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday
The ELCA’s annual “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is September 13. It is a perfect opportunity to connect service with hunger ministry.
Congregations might:
Volunteer together at a food bank, pantry, community garden, or meal program.
Collect the specific foods requested by a local pantry.
Assemble emergency food boxes or weekend food bags for students.
Organize a noisy offering or special collection for ELCA World Hunger or a local hunger ministry.
Invite a food-bank representative, school nutrition worker, or SNAP outreach specialist to speak.
Deliver thank-you notes and treats to school cafeteria workers, pantry volunteers, or food-distribution staff.
Before planning a food drive, ask the receiving organization what it needs most. Often, a financial gift enables a food bank to purchase more food—and exactly the right food—than an individual shopper can provide for the same amount.
Find food or volunteer opportunities near you
Food Bank of Northern Nevada: Serving Northern Nevada and the eastern Sierra through partner pantries, mobile distributions, and community programs.
Three Square Food Bank: Serving Southern Nevada, with food-distribution, volunteer, fundraising, and advocacy opportunities.
Nevada 211: A statewide directory for food pantries, meal sites, housing support, utility assistance, and more. Call 211 or 1-866-535-5654, or text your ZIP code to 898211.
Food banks need dependable volunteers after September, too. Consider making hunger ministry a monthly or quarterly commitment rather than a one-time event.
Make your congregation a hunger-resource hub
People experiencing hunger are already present in our congregations and neighborhoods, although we may not know who they are. Shame, complicated applications, transportation barriers, and lack of information can keep people from seeking help.
Place discreet, current information in newsletters, restrooms, gathering spaces, and online about:
Nearby food pantries and meal sites
SNAP application assistance
School breakfast and lunch programs
WIC support for pregnant people, infants, and young children
Summer meals and SUN Bucks
Nutrition assistance for older adults
Share Nevada 211 widely, and make it clear: seeking help is not a failure. Food is a human need, and receiving support in a difficult season is part of living in community.
Pair generosity with advocacy
Donations meet today’s need. Advocacy helps change the conditions that cause the need.
During Hunger Action Month, contact your elected officials and urge them to:
Protect and strengthen SNAP rather than creating barriers that cause eligible people to lose assistance.
Support healthy, accessible school meals for Nevada children.
Protect nutrition programs for older adults, veterans, people with disabilities, and families with children.
Invest in food-bank infrastructure and reliable access to nutritious food in rural and urban communities.
Address the high costs of housing, health care, and utilities that force families to choose between food and other necessities.
Wear orange. Share reliable information. Give. Volunteer. Advocate. Check on an older neighbor. Thank a school nutrition worker. Ask your congregation to make hunger a year-round ministry priority.
No single action will end hunger. But every faithful action matters—and together, we can build a Nevada in which all our neighbors have the daily bread they need.
Hunger Action Day—also known as Orange Day—is September 29, 2026.
Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada 