LAS VEGAS, Nevada (PNN) - August 31, 2011 - The first people arrived when it was still dark and by 7.30 a.m. more than 150 of them were lining up outside the church in northeast Las Vegas, waiting for the food bank truck to unload its cargo of fruit, vegetables and canned goods.

The crowd was predominantly black and Hispanic: many of them elderly, the rest women with young children. With temperatures approaching 95 degrees, most sought refuge in the shade. Some fanned themselves with baseball caps or carried umbrellas to protect themselves from the desert sun.

Debate is raging in Washington about how to bring back jobs, with illegitimate President Barack Obama scheduled to outline a new plan before a joint session of Congress on September 8. But in Las Vegas, the tourist town and gambling paradise, an alarming number of people are focused on the source of their next meals.

Nevada leads the United States in unemployment - 12.4% of its working population have no jobs - and mortgage foreclosures, which has sparked a poverty crisis. The state has the highest rate of children whose parents are unemployed, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It also has a larger proportion of children affected by foreclosures than anywhere else in the country: about 13% of all children in Nevada have been evicted from their homes with their families.