Letter From Our President & CEO – January 10, 2025

Happy New Year 2025!

I believe every day is a day of reflection.  We have to make time each day to review what we experienced, find ways to celebrate the successes, find ways to improve on the failures and look forward to the future with an attitude of continual improvement. 

 Yesterday, the Food Bank staff gathered to reflect, not on a day, but on the year of 2024.  We, along with your help, accomplished a tremendous amount in our fight against food insecurity.  Obviously, the biggest single success came with the construction and moving in to the Claude and Betty Harris Center for Hunger Relief.  And I must say that after six months it does not disappoint.  I remind you that this is your Food Bank, and encourage you to come tour the facility that you built to serve our neighbors for years and years to come.  We completed the construction and move without disruption of our normal day to day service to food insecurity as the following numbers will confirm:
    *We served 26,099 households totaling 79,729 individuals through our Mobile Pantry division.  Please note some of these individuals were served more than once.

    *We served 17,543 households totaling 86,067 individuals through our School Pantry Program. It is important to add that 46,764 of these individuals were under 17 years of age, in the physical and intellectual formation of their lives.  Please note some of these individuals were served more than once.

    *We served 3,741 unique households totaling 13,093 individuals through Feed Rogers.  It is interesting to note that, even being closed from June through October because of the tornado damage, we only served 737 fewer individuals in 2024 than we did the entire year of 2023.

    *We added an Order Ahead program which served 2,325 unique households totaling 8,820 individuals.

    *Our team completed and submitted 421 SNAP applications for our neighbors in need which was a 325% increase over 2023, but is just scratching the surface of the potential for this program.

    *We invested over $150,000 in our agency partners to help them better serve the community. Our agency capacity grant program purchased commercial refrigerators and freezers, rolling shelving units, materials to upgrade flooring and increase electricity capabilities, laptops as well as provided funding towards 3 walk-in freezers, 1 walk-in cooler, and 1 refrigerated box truck, just to name a few of the items that helped our agency partners.

    *All total we distributed 14,907,089 pounds in our four-county service area which was the equivalency of 12,422,574 meals.  This represents growth of 6%.

These are just a few of the highlights of the past year, none of which could have been accomplished without your generous support of your time and treasure.

    *We had a total of 19,594 volunteer hours which is the equivalent of 7 ½ full time employees saving us over $400,000 in salary expense.

    *We had just under 6,000 unique donors contribute over 14,800 monetary gifts during the year.

While the numbers speak for themselves, I also want to point out that during 2024 we opened the Tyson Protein Repack Room.  This USDA inspected packing room is one of 11 in the Feeding America network and will give us access to much needed protein for not only our neighbors, but for other Food Banks in need of our support.  We found many ways to improve our administrative and operational efficiencies, and worked with peer Food Banks to attack the fact that Arkansas has the highest percentage of food insecure individuals of any of the 50 states.

In closing our meeting yesterday, I issued a challenge to the team.  I asked them to Strive to Thrive in ’25!  We have to continue to improve as the need for our work is only going to intensify as Northwest Arkansas continues to grow and the cost of living continues to outpace earning power.  Those neighbors who have been living on the edge need our help now more than ever.  I issued this challenge with a grateful heart, thankful for each of them and their commitment to the mission of feeding people and thankful for the community support we have received.  

I hope each and every one of you have your best year ever in 2025.  Because of you, someone will eat today.

K

We're blown away by the generous hearts that participated in our Advent Calendar box program! Thank you all for making the season bright by fighting hunger! Through December, community members followed the advent calendar and added different food items to the boxes each day. With these advent calendar boxes, our community helped provide hope to households experiencing food insecurity.

Every Sunday, members of Pea Ridge Church of Christ support their community through their food pantry.

Most of the families served are from Pea Ridge, but others come from Garfield, Avoca and neighboring communities. Chris, the administrator for the food pantry, said he often sees multi-generational households, “a lot of elderly people or elderly people that are raising grandkids, situations like that.”

One in four grandparent-headed households experiences food insecurity, according to the Generations United “2024 State of Grandfamilies & Kinship Care Report.” Along with rising grocery prices, multigenerational households face financial challenges associated with gaining custody of children, healthcare needs for aging adults, and limited incomes, such as Social Security.

The Pea Ridge Church of Christ is here to support every family’s unique needs with care and kindness.

“We generally will prepare the box and then carry it out, put it in their car for them, especially for older people that shouldn’t be lifting the boxes,” Chris said.

He estimated that boxes weigh around 50 pounds, and typically include foods like pancake mix and syrup, pasta, apple sauce, and other shelf-stable foods, along with frozen meat.

“Of course, we never turn down any requests if anybody has any,” he added. “...Sometimes, people will request children’s items or baby food, and we always fulfill it if we have it on hand.”

As an agency partner of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, Pea Ridge Church of Christ distributes the food they receive to families through once-a-month prepacked boxes. They also help in emergency situations if a family has already picked up their monthly box.

The Pea Ridge Church of Christ Food Pantry is open every Sunday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. They are located at 932 N. Curtis Ave., and they can be reached at 479-451-8397.

Confidence, curiosity and connection – cooking results in much more than a delicious meal. For Malen, it’s an opportunity to try new recipes and deepen relationships in her community.

So when she learned about free cooking classes hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, she quickly signed up and encouraged her friends to join her.

Pantry-to-Plate classes are open to anyone in Northwest Arkansas and are led by Becky, the Food Bank’s nutrition education coordinator, in the Teaching Kitchen. Along with making the recipes in class, participants learn nutrition tips and tricks to incorporate into their daily lives.

“Becky makes it really fun just to be in class with substitutions and healthier ways to try things,” Malen said. “And the other thing is, I just enjoy some of the other people that come. You meet people you wouldn’t have met before.”

Whenever Malen tells others about the cooking classes – and she tells everyone, from her Lyft driver to people in line at the grocery store – she stresses that anyone can attend, no matter their circumstances or cooking experience.

“Nobody looks down on anybody else,” she said. “It’s all about community, making better choices and learning new skills.”

One of her favorite things about Pantry-to-Plate is the hands-on experience. In one class, participants made whole-wheat pizza dough and tomato sauce from scratch with fresh toppings like spinach, peppers and grated parmesan.
  
“I didn’t think I could make homemade pizza dough,” Malen said. “My husband has been very appreciative of that. I would’ve never made it with whole wheat if Becky hadn’t shown us the differences, and it doesn’t make it tasteless – it actually tasted better.”

No matter your cooking level, Pantry-to-Plate has a place for you.

“I noticed in class that a lot of people learn tools that they’ve never used before like a garlic press or they’ve never used a juicer ... Every piece of equipment is different, so it’s a learning experience and that’s why I really enjoy it,” Malen said. “You never know what tips, tricks, or new techniques you’ll learn.”

For information on future cooking and nutrition classes, follow the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank’s Facebook page.

During the month of December, we welcomed 735 volunteers who served a total of 1,619 hours helping us get food ready to send out to our agency partners and mobile pantries to serve our neighbors in need. If you, your family, your friends, or your office team would like to volunteer, please visit www.nwafoodbank.org/volunteer to find a date and time that will fit your schedule. We would love to have you volunteer with us!