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 did n'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 do n'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 . Watch chefs whip up a special meal for the kids . Volunteer Shirley Hernandez has two grandchildren at Whitney and has seen desperate straits . `` Last year we did n't have Christmas , '' she said . `` They gave us Christmas . '' The school also paid past-due utility bills to keep the family 's water from being turned off . Hernandez is at the school most mornings , helping to fill food baskets , assisting kids who need clothes or helping out any way she can . She said she gives back because `` they helped us a lot . '' Every teacher at Whitney has a story . For kindergarten teacher Michelle Olson it 's the 5-year-old girl who kept falling asleep in class . `` She was getting up throughout the night to feed and diaper her baby sister , '' Olson said . Watch one Las Vegas family 's plight . It may seem like a lot for an elementary school to take on , but Gahn said she has no choice . `` My goal here is to take away some of their survival needs , '' she said . `` Then they can come to school and feel safe and learn . '' Whitney is not alone . A recent survey of elementary school teachers found that two-thirds of teachers reported spending money out of their pockets to help feed hungry students . The same survey , conducted by anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength , found that 17 million children in the United States are at risk of going hungry this year . Whitney Elementary demands a lot in return for the special attention . Gahn said she believes her students deserve rigorous classroom instruction and the efforts are showing results . In the seven years that Gahn has been principal at Whitney , students have doubled their proficiency scores on standardized reading tests . `` They have food in their bellies that they would not have had , they have clothes on their back they would n't have had and for the first time someone believes in them . It 's beyond food and clothing , '' she said . `` It 's helping them understand there are people in the community that love them and will nourish them . We want to help them create a new norm . We do n't want poverty and homelessness to define who they are . ''
Principal : About 75 % of kids have been homeless or are in danger . School runs a food bank for kids , also chips in with clothes , haircuts , bills . Sleepy 5-year - old tasked with feeding , changing his clothes during night , she says . Standardized test scores on students as Las Vegas school works to ` ` create a new norm ''