No one should ever have to experience hunger, yet Arkansas ranks as the second-highest state in the nation for food insecurity. Roughly one in six residents, equivalent to an estimated 467,500 Arkansans, live with the uncertainty of not knowing where their next meal will come from. Many hardworking families in the state find themselves trapped in low-wage jobs that do not meet the need to cover housing and medical expenses, leaving little room in their budgets to purchase essential food. Shockingly, about one-third of households in Arkansas face these challenging decisions each month.
Our Food For Families Program focuses on connecting our partner agencies with local, state, and national resources with food and funds to strengthen their programs, ultimately enabling them to serve their community better. To do this, we:
- Work to provide access to healthy and nutritious food to families;
- Partner with over 300 agencies that include community pantries, meal programs, and shelters across 33 counties;
- Provide mini-grants opportunities to build agency capacity that can serve as food credits and/or purchase equipment;
- Conduct Foodbank University training sessions to improve pantry services through various best practices topics.
- Design and implement new program initiatives to tackle barriers to food security
