Agency and Pantry FAQs

“Food insecurity” refers to the lack of consistent access to enough food to fully meet basic needs due to limited financial resources. It may take the form of skipping meals, reducing the quality or quantity of food purchased, or being unable to feed all household members adequately.  Often times, we simply refer to this as “not knowing where your next meal is coming from.” Hunger is involuntary which results from not being able to afford enough food. When using food insecurity statistics, do not use “hungry” in substitution for “food insecurity” or “food insecure.” 

• 1 in 5 or 19.3% of Arkansans are food insecure
• 1 in 4 or 24% of children in Arkansas are food insecure
• 1 in 8 or 12.5% of seniors in Arkansas are food insecure (where it was previously 7.7%)

• Arkansas is 1st in the nation for food insecurity, according to the USDA

Visit map.feedingamerica.org/ for more information on counties and more age-specific information.

USDA agencies can expect to see their coordinator at least annually for an On-Site Review, while non-USDA agencies should expect to see their coordinator at least every other year for an On-Site Review.

Your coordinator or other staff members from AFB may also visit from time to time apart from On-Site Reviews to help at a distribution or just discuss how best we can support you – we call those relational visits.

Please do not be alarmed if a staff member asks if they can come for a relational visit; we just want to ensure we are being the best partners we can be.

An Arkansas Foodbank team member might also contact you to visit to gather stories from your volunteers and neighbors you serve.

• Arkansas Foodbank (Main Branch) 4301 W. 65th Street, Little Rock, AR, 72209 | (501)565-8121 | arkansasfoodbank.org 

• Arkansas Foodbank (Warren Branch) 205 N. Martin Street, Warren, AR 71671 | (870)226-4266 | arkansasfoodbank.org — Serves 7 counties consisting of Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Drew, Ouachita and Union counties in Arkansas  

• Michelle D. Hunter Pantry Resource Center 586 Phillips County Road 241, Lexa, AR 72355 | (870)338-8447 | arkansasfoodbank.org — Serves the Delta region. 

The Arkansas Foodbank has capacity-building grants and food credit opportunities periodically, and we also have an incentive program called Feeding Forward that can unlock additional grant opportunities for your agency. 

Be sure to let your coordinator know if you have specific needs or would like additional information about Feeding Forward. Our team also works hard to keep updated information about other community grants that become available, so be sure to check out the Funding Opportunities page for updates.

Service Insights helps agencies better understand community needs and improve services. 

It does not check immigration status. It does not affect SNAP, WIC, or other benefits. 

It does not share information outside the Arkansas Foodbank. 

Please notify your coordinator prior to any changes in distribution times.  The coordinator will make sure that all of the Arkansas Foodbank files reflect your modified distribution times.  In addition, please correct your distribution information in the Vivery platform. This will update the Find Food information available to neighbors when they search for food distribution access points. It is crucial that both our organizational files and Vivery are updated with the current/updated days and hours.

Check with your coordinator to be sure that we have the correct primary email address on file for you, and be sure you are checking your email at least weekly (although more frequently might be beneficial).

The use of email is crucial for us to be able to maintain contact with our large number of very appreciated agencies.