By Chuck Conder, CNN
November 27, 2009 12:20 p.m. EST
Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- Principal Sherrie Gahn said she was shocked when she first came to Whitney Elementary School seven years ago.
"The kids were eating ketchup packets," Gahn said. "I said to one of my teachers, 'What on Earth are they doing?' and she said, 'That's their dinner.' "
Whitney Elementary is in a dusty, rundown neighborhood of Las Vegas known as the Boulder Strip. The main drag, the Boulder Highway, is lined with pawn shops and low-rent motels.
Families here live at the edge of financial disaster. Gahn estimates that 75 percent of her 622 students have experienced homelessness or are in danger of becoming homeless.
"There are pockets of Vegas that were bad," Gahn said, "but it's gotten 10 times worse with the recession."
Under Gahn's leadership, Whitney Elementary has become the chief lifeline for its students and their families. In addition to the regular lunch program for needy kids, the school operates a food bank.
Hundreds of students are sent home each Friday with food supplies to keep their families fed through the weekend.
"If we didn't have the food services, there would be a lot of hungry kids out there," said Kim Butterfield, a homeless advocate who works at the school.
Butterfield also organizes a clothing pantry in one of the school's spare classrooms. The school provides an entire winter wardrobe to students in need of clothing.
The school's efforts don't stop there. Gahn tries to provide whatever her students need, whether it's a dental appointment or a haircut.
"There is not an agency in Las Vegas that can actually take care of the number of homeless and poverty-stricken children that I have at this school," Gahn said. "So the only course of action I could take was to become self-sufficient."
Over the years, Gahn has built up a network of donors that supply money, goods and services. She relies on grateful parents who volunteer at the school.
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