I believe God sends us messages... When we take time to listen.

Last week I received a book in the mail. It was unsolicited but came from Dynamic Catholic, an organization I do purchase books from. The book is DO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL FOR GOD, the essential teachings of Mother Teresa. In addition to a brief biography, the book features daily thought encounters shared by the saint. Here is June 25th’s:

“I once picked up a small girl who was wandering the streets, lost. Hunger was written all over her face. Who knows how long it had been since she had eaten anything! I offered her a piece of bread. The little one started eating crumb by crumb. I told her, “Eat, eat the bread.” She looked at me and said “I am just afraid that when I run out of bread, I’ll still be hungry.”

Five years ago, I began having the nagging feeling that I was being called to leave the newspaper and come to the Food Bank. You all have heard the story so it doesn’t need repeated. Just suffice it to say I believe God had a plan for my life and that plan was to be president of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and to lead a great team in our efforts to attack food insecurity in the region head on. Since January 1, 2016, with your help, we have done that exact thing. We have taken an aggressive route with the goal of providing reasonable access to food to all Northwest Arkansans by the year 2025. Roughly 100 days ago, our world was rocked by COVID 19. Overnight, thousands of our neighbors lost their jobs, spent their savings, and were forced to go to a food pantry or a mobile pantry for the first time.

With your help, we have been able to provide the food they have needed. But this crisis is far from over. While other areas of the country are getting better, the disease is spreading rapidly in our service area. As the number of cases rise, it will have an economic impact and that economic impact will force us to have to buy and distribute more food.

I cannot begin to thank you enough for all you have done to support the Food bank in the past. Together we have made a difference in the lives of thousands. But before our work is done, we have to address this question, “How many little girls, and boys will ‘still be hungry’ when they finish their bread?” Because of you someone will eat today.

- Kent Eikenberry

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to adjust our volunteer shifts at our Bethel Heights location to help keep everyone safe. It is easy to sign up! Just visit the Volunteer page!

Limited spaces for each shift are available, so choose yours today!

Distribution Warehouse

Tuesday 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Thursday 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Friday 9-11 a.m.

Saturday 9-11 a.m.

Teaching Garden

Monday 8-10 a.m.

Wednesday 8-10 a.m.

We had 108 new people register with us on our site to become NWA Food Bank volunteers! THANK YOU!

To sign up to volunteer, please pre-register online on our Volunteers page!

Paula Miller is a passionate member of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank volunteer team! We are honored to have Paula as a part of our organization. Paula assists at the Berryville, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, and Lowell mobile pantries every month, and has been serving with us for four years. We love Paula for her ability to command a pantry, her incredible work ethic, and her ability to smile through anything. Thank you, Paula!

Special Shout-Out to volunteers!

Marty Adcock, Robyn Blakeley, Mikayla Roy, Marilu Torres, Scott Blackwell, Young Men's Service League, and National Charity League for their volunteer work this past month. You all rock!

During the month of June, we were able to harvest over 62 pounds of fresh produce from our new teaching garden, located at our Bethel Heights location. This produce was distributed to clients at our mobile pantry locations during the month. Everyone loved to receive this fresh produce, and were pleasantly surprised when they were told it was grown at our office location. We look forward to being able to continue to provide fresh produce in the coming months as well.

We want to thank everyone who supports our organization each and every day- including our employees, our Board members, our donors, our volunteers, our partner agencies, the list goes on and on.

We couldn’t do what we do without each and every one of you! THANK YOU!

A new informational flyer has been created to help educate people on how to get the food they need. This flyer, produced both in English and Spanish, answers questions about paying for food, what is needed to receive food, what is a mobile pantry, etc. We tried to cover all of the basics with this flyer so it is a “one time shop” for anyone new to the process.

The flyer is being mailed out to a selected group of residents in the four counties we serve, and will also be available online, at government assistance offices, and anywhere we feel there is a need to share the information.