“One hungry person is one too many.” It’s worse if that hungry person is a child. By last count Feeding America estimates there are approximately 18,000 young people about to enter summer vacation hungry in our four-county service area. With school out, the safety net of school lunch, breakfast in the classroom, snack pack programs and school pantries are not available. I often tell people there is no slow time of the year for hunger. It never takes a break. However, summer vacation time puts additional stress on families and our partner agencies.

I remember as a child looking forward to summer vacation. Time off from school meant days of baseball or swimming with friends. Carefree days in the sun. But every one of those days ended with me going home to a nutritious home cooked meal. My mom always had enough for all of my friends who wanted to stay and have some of whatever she had fixed that day. Like I said, I looked forward to summer vacation. Hungry children do not have that luxury. In many cases they are afraid of how they will survive while school is out. Where will the food come from? You can help us stock our partner agencies for the increased summer need. Thank you for helping us prepare.

This morning I had the opportunity to be the program at a local civic group. I shared with them some information about the current Food Bank, the work we do and talked a little about the future which includes the new Center for Hunger Relief. During the question period, one of the members asked “what is your most pressing need?” I responded with “knowledge”. Knowledge and understanding by the community that there is a food insecurity problem. I think he was surprised that I didn’t say more donations or more volunteers but that I emphasized that I needed more people to know why we do what we do. Later in the day I ran into an old friend who I had not seen for several years. I was sharing this story with him and he suggested that we all have on blinders and until an issue touches us directly, we don’t necessarily pay attention. He’s right. But food insecurity does touch us all.

Everyone of us knows someone who struggles to put a meal on the table. We may not know that we know someone, but I promise you we know one of the 70,000 plus in the four-county service area that struggle. I encourage you to think of food insecurity not as some faceless being living somewhere else, but think of the food insecure neighbor as someone you see every day. I promise you, it will bring a new perspective to the way you consider our neighbors in need.

If you haven’t had a chance, please take a few minutes and drive by 71B, Pleasant Grove Road and Honeysuckle Road in north Lowell. All I can say is “Oh My!” Every time I drive by the future site of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and see the progress we are making toward a new Food Bank facility I am amazed. Amazed not only with the progress being made, but amazed at the community support to make it happen. To this point we have over 250 individuals or corporations who have donated to the Food For Today/Hope For Tomorrow Capital Campaign. I cannot begin to thank each of you enough for your investment in the future of Northwest Arkansas. I’ve told many people that the community is building the new Food Bank. While it is much larger and much more modern, it is not extravagant. But I promise you, it is one that we all can be proud of, and we can all be proud of the work that will come out of it.

Thank you all for your continued financial support, your moral support, for keeping us and our food insecure neighbors in your thoughts and prayers, and most of all for making Northwest Arkansas one of the best places on earth to live. Because of you, someone will eat today.

We want to give a huge THANK YOU to the NCR Corporation for their continued support of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.

They donated more than 450 pounds of cereal to the Food Bank in December. Putting a fun spin on things, the local NCR team created a video of a cereal box domino train and the journey from their offices to our warehouse.

The cereal video won a company-wide global social media competition, and the team was awarded a grant.

On May 3rd, they donated the $50,000 competition grant to the Food Bank for the Center for Hunger Relief. The team also spent the morning volunteering with us, providing 6,163 meals by packing boxes for our Mobile Pantry program. We are so grateful for your support!

Harmon United Methodist Church

The food pantry at Harmon United Methodist Church, which started in 2005, serves anyone seeking help with food. Volunteers build boxes according to each family’s size and needs.

If a family has limited storage space or does not have working appliances, the pantry also takes that into consideration. Boxes include a variety of foods like canned goods, frozen meat, produce and shelf-stable foods such as cereal and pasta.

Harmon UMC’s pantry is welcoming to all and focuses on building relationships with families in the community.

Nina and Shirley, pantry volunteers, said their goal is to serve families in a rural area where there are not many other options.

“God provides and we help each other,” Nina said.

Harmon UMC’s pantry is open on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. at 19032 Harmon Road just outside of Tontitown. For more information, visit www.harmonumc.org.

Everyone has a role to play in ending food insecurity and strengthening our communities. For Liddy, it’s sharing knowledge and resources.

She’s always on the lookout for ways to pass it forward. Along with offering rides to food pantries, she helps neighbors unload their items when they return.

“It makes me feel good ... I don’t want to see anyone go hungry,” she said. “It’s a disgrace and a sin when people do,” she said.

One place she found support was Bread of Life in Springdale, a partner agency of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. When Liddy first visited, “Everything was smooth, 15 minutes and I was out of there,” she said, noting how organized they were.

Liddy loves to cook with the food she receives, using ingredients and spices to make delicious meals.

“(The chicken patties) are easy to cook and quick,” she said. “I bake or fry them, cut them up in a salad or put them in stir fry.”

Whenever Liddy is able, she donates to Bread of Life. “If I’m going to be taking, I want to give back,” she said.

Bread of Life is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at 212 W. Emma Ave. in Springdale. They can be contacted at 479-751-4610.Economic hardship rarely affects one part of a person’s life. Often the dominoes come crashing down on your housing, food, and other necessities, leaving you to pick up the pieces and start again.

When Liddy fell into a hard economic situation a few years ago, she “had to, literally by the grace of God and luck, learn how to survive,” she said.

After experiencing homelessness and spending three years on the waiting list for Section 8 housing, she now has a place in Fayetteville and receives SNAP benefits.

“Through the luck of the draw,” Liddy said, she was connected to a social worker who told her about SSI, which helped her receive additional income due to her disability.

Going from financially secure with no worries about budgeting to watching every penny “was a reality check for me,” she said.

As she learned more about the systems of poverty assistance, Liddy became determined to help her neighbors in similar circumstances.

Whether it’s sharing food pantry offerings or community services, Liddy wants to help her neighbors find the resources they need to thrive.

“I won’t just keep it to myself,” she said. “I’ll share it.”

We couldn’t do what we do without our wonderful volunteers. During the month of April, we had 427 volunteers serve a total of 1,680 hours in our warehouse, in our garden, at one of our mobile pantries, or at our Feed Rogers location. THANK YOU for volunteering with us! If you would like to volunteer with us, you can find a complete listing of opportunities by visiting www.nwafoodbank.org/volunteer.

On April 28th we ended Volunteer Appreciation Week with a BBQ luncheon to celebrate our volunteers. Thank you to everyone that attended and a special thank you to First Security Bank for supplying the food and manpower to cook up the delicious food!