Cara Eickhoff has joined the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank as a part-time operations assistant.

After 13.5 years with Walmart, she decided to pursue her dream of working in the social work field. Eickhoff is currently enrolled at Northwest Arkansas Community College in its social work curriculum and eventually wants to attend the University of Arkansas to finish her undergraduate and graduate studies in social work.

She started working at the coffee bar at Walmart then moved over to the information systems division in UNIX ops. She then took on an administrative assistant’s role. Her last five years with Walmart were spent in replenishment and food safety.

Since she was going into social work, she was looking for a part-time position that was related to that area, she said. The experience she’ll gain at the Food Bank will help with her pursuit of her degree.

“The addition of Cara’s organization skills with her administrative duties will enable our development team to spend more time out in the community, engaging with our donors and less time in the office,” said Mike Williams, director of development.

A Bella Vista resident, the 32-year-old was born in Kansas, but raised in Arkansas. She and her husband, Eric, are raising two children, Jimmy Keene, 10, and Addison Girth, 7.