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Creation and Connoisseur

About us

Creation and Connoisseur is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on food insecurity at UNLV. It is owned and run by Aryah Certain.

Our mission

Creation and Connoisseur fights food insecurity in Las Vegas. We are planning a mobile food pantry, targeted for 2027, that would bring food directly to the students and neighborhoods that cannot reach it.

Our story

Creation and Connoisseur started at UNLV with a simple observation: a lot of students were hungry, and most of them were not getting help. Food insecurity on campus is common, quiet, and easy to miss. We decided to do something about it.

We are a nonprofit with a campus heart. Our student club, the UNLV Food Tasting Club, brings student members together around food every month, and those events are where our volunteers come from and where much of our funding is raised. Every other week, those volunteers serve alongside the organizations that feed Las Vegas today.

Our next step is planned for 2027: a mobile food pantry that would bring free groceries directly to the students and neighborhoods that cannot easily reach a food bank. We plan to stock it with what the people we serve actually cook, because food that gets eaten is the only kind that counts.

Our people

  • Aryah Certain

    Founder and President

    Aryah Certain founded Creation and Connoisseur while studying at UNLV, where she is completing degrees in Information Systems, Finance, and Insurance and Risk Management. Born and raised in Las Vegas, she is a Rotarian and the founder of two local companies, and she started this organization because the students around her were hungry and the food on offer rarely felt like home. She leads the organization's partnerships, fundraising and the planned mobile food pantry.