How Las Vegas’ Ronald McDonald House collects 20,000 pounds of food in 5 hours

As you’re preparing for your Super Bowl party — somewhere between filling your shopping cart with beer and hoarding the ingredients for that top-secret eighth layer for your favorite dip — Alyson McCarthy hopes you’ll pick up a few extra items for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas.

More than 250 volunteers will be spread out, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, to cover all 37 Smith’s locations in Southern Nevada as part of the organization’s annual food drive. Wish lists will be available to all shoppers on their way in. The proceeds will fill the pantry at the Ronald McDonald House for an entire year to help feed the up to a dozen families staying there while relatives receive medical care nearby.

“Every night, a different volunteer group comes in, and they cook a homemade dinner for the families that are coming back from the hospital,” says McCarthy, CEO of the nonprofit. “It’s our single most popular volunteer program, because you can eat with the families, too. So they use that food in the pantry, and then they bring the fresh ingredients.”

McCarthy, 56, grew up in Modesto and Danville, California, and came to Las Vegas in 1989 as a weekend anchor for KTNV-TV, Channel 13. After two decades in local news, including eight years at KLAS-TV, Channel 8, she joined Ronald McDonald House Charities in 2011.

Review-Journal: Do you miss working in news?

McCarthy: I loved the 20-plus years that I had in TV news. I don’t miss it like I thought I would. I thought I would miss that whole adrenaline rush of being on a deadline, but I find that heading up a nonprofit organization is just an amazing, fast-paced, just no-day-is-like-any-other-day situation. So, no. The short of it is, no. I’m more than satisfied with this amazing mission of helping families in crisis.

How did you decide to leave news behind for the nonprofit world?

I wanted to do something that felt, I don’t know, just sort of more meaningful on a day-to-day basis. Where, when you go to work, you really are impacting the life of a family in need, and that’s what the mission is all about. It’s about keeping families close when they need it, and that’s when their children are hospitalized.

Is there anything you’ve learned about Las Vegas while working at a nonprofit that you didn’t realize when you were in news?

I think I’d have to say just how generous the community is. Las Vegas can get a bad rap for being, first of all, just transient. “There’s no culture. There are no roots.” People say this, and I think that it couldn’t be further from the truth. When October 1 happened, oh my gosh, the outpouring of community help here at the house! People were coming in and saying, “I’ve already told my boss I will be no good to him or her today, I’m going out to help.” And they were showing up on our doorstep at the house saying, “What can I do?” Everybody just felt this immense sense of needing to do something to help. And they didn’t care what it was, whether it was sorting food and water or just taking lunches that we made to first responders and to family members at the hospital for the relatives of the shooting victims. We served a thousand sandwiches just that first day.

The food drive is coming up. Is this the biggest day of the year for the organization?

This is the biggest day of the year when it comes to our volunteers. We have 250-300 volunteers spread out like an army of helper ants all over the valley to all 37 Smith’s locations. … We’re only out there for five hours, and we get 20,000 pounds of food. And not just food, it’s paper products for the house and cleaning products and baby products and things like that. And then we have our little (red clown) boots out there, and we collect, probably, about $10,000 in change.

Is there a reason it takes place the day before the Super Bowl every year?

It’s just a huge day, because everybody has their Super Bowl parties. And that’s our spiel. We’ll say, “Hey, while you’re shopping for your Super Bowl party, can you pick up an extra item for us?” And we’ll have people bring a shopping cart full of food.

So who do you like in the game?

My father is a die-hard Rams fan, so I’m going to say the Rams. But I am a die-hard Raiders fan. Have been since I was a little-bitty girl.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.