For the past few months, I have focused on one specific area of the Claude and Betty Harris Center for Hunger Relief, Northwest Arkansas’ new Food Bank warehouse which is under construction. I’ll return to that topic in June, hopefully with good news about the move and a wrap up of how it will serve us all for many, many years to come. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some other topics that need to be addressed. Diana and I have lived in our current home for over 30 years. We’ve done lots of maintenance and some remodeling, but for the most part a lot of what we moved into the house all those years ago is still there. After spending a few days packing up my office here at the Food Bank in preparation for the move to the new Food Bank, all I can say is I hope we never move! “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 agency partners. 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. I often get asked the question, “what is your most pressing need?” I respond with “knowledge.” Knowledge and understanding by the community that there is a food insecurity problem. People are surprised that I don’t say more donations or more volunteers, but that I emphasize that I need more people to know why we do what we do. Recently I ran into an old friend who I had not seen for several years. I was sharing this 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. Every one 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. I want to close by saying once again how much I appreciate your support. The staff and board of the Food Bank could not do what we do without your help. Recently I attended the Feeding America National Conference. The biggest thing I learned was confirmation of what I already knew….Northwest Arkansans have a giant heart and together we will address food insecurity for many years to com Because of you, someone will eat today. K
Those of you who know me well will know how difficult it is for me to write this. Simply stated, I don’t like drawing attention to myself. However, since it was done with the Food Bank mission in mind, I encourage you to pick up a copy of October’s Celebrate Magazine. I believe you will recognize the guy on the cover, even if you don’t recognize my friend, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America. A couple of months ago, Wylie Elliott approached me with the idea of featuring our fight against food insecurity in their magazine. I responded that our fight here in Northwest Arkansas is just one of the struggles across the nation and suggested we include Feeding America. The photos and the article do a wonderful job of showing the collaboration between our two organizations and the support of the business community not only here, but beyond. Hunger action month is over. I haven’t worn orange yet this month, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. I pledge to take advantage of every opportunity to bring awareness to the problem of food insecurity. If that means wearing an orange shirt, or an orange tie, or an orange cap, I will. Last week I was interviewed on the KNWA morning show while at the Walmart NWA Championship presented by P & G. We received a generous donation from the tournament but, as I told Perry, the exposure the Food Bank receives from being supported by events such as the tournament helps bring the problem to the forefront of the public. “I had no idea your building was going to be that big. It’s huge!” If I heard it once recently, I’ve heard it a hundred times. And each time I hear it I give the same answer. “It’s not my building, it is the community’s. Plus, there is a reason we built it so large.” While going through the design phase, we determined that it would not cost that much more to build a facility that will take us through projected population growth to at least 1.5 million people. That sounds like a big number, but at a growth rate of 30+ per day it will be here before we know it. Several hundred people have stepped forward and donated to the capital campaign, thereby stating that a new building will be one of the tools to fight food insecurity. Not just today, but for years to come. I may not be around to see it, but whoever follows me will have a facility that will serve the needs of all future Northwest Arkansans. It costs a lot of money to do what we do. We are projecting to spend over $3 million this year on food alone. As we enter into the fourth quarter of the year, I ask you to be mindful of the struggles the working poor are having. Is there money to pay rent, pay the utilities, feed and clothe the family? Is there money to cover prescription medicine if needed? Are my SNAP benefits going away? You have helped the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank answer all these questions by providing us the support to put food on the table of those who need it. You help turn a look of despair into a look of hope. We cannot do it without your help. So, as this year comes to a close, I encourage you to help someone you don’t know feed their family by a gift to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. Thank you in advance. Because of you, someone will eat today K
September is Hunger Action Month. It’s time for me to resume my annual quest of wearing orange every working day of September. I have had several folks ask me why I established my “orange challenge.” To restate, orange is the color representing food insecurity. Our NWAFB logo, “No kids Hungry”, The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and Feeding America all have orange as an integral color. Any opportunity I get to bring attention to the need is a success. Monetary donations help pay the bills. Money helps put food on the tables of those in need. Advocacy is equally as important. Too many people are hungry and too few people realize the need is a great as it is. I have been proud to wear orange every day in past Septembers, and I am looking forward to putting my orange on. I even have some new orange shirts to add to the rotation. I invite you to accept this as my challenge to you to wear orange also. Please snap a selfie of you in an orange shirt or blouse and email it to me at kent@nwafoodbank.org and I will share it on our social media platforms. Well, technically I will have Julie or Catherine share the photos. On August 25 we celebrated some of our recent successes at our Jewels of Giving Celebration. The biggest part of that night of celebration was the announcement that the new facility in Lowell was to be named the Claude and Betty Harris Center for Hunger Relief. The Harris family have been supporters of our Food Bank since the beginning and were one of, if not the first donor to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. Don Harris, the Harris Foundation Board Chair, stated: “As a Foundation it's been a blessing to support the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank over the years. The new facility in Lowell launches the next chapter of programming and services to address food insecurity in a vibrant, growing region of the country. We are humbled that the organization is honoring our Founders, Claude and Betty Harris, in conjunction with the new operating space. We also believe this is only one small part of what it takes to impact feeding those in our community. A building is nothing without leadership, staff, volunteers, corporate sponsors, churches, donors, food pantries and all the other tentacles of support needed to serve those most vulnerable here at home. It is those people and organizations that are the real key to success and we are so appreciative of what they do." Please join me in expressing our deepest appreciation to the Harris family for all of their support over the years. Speaking of the Claude and Betty Harris Center for Hunger Relief, construction progress is really picking up. After a significant number of down days due to wet ground, we have dried out and picked up the pace. It remains our goal that we will celebrate our 36th Anniversary in the new facility in June of 2024. Please take a few moments and drive by the intersection of Pleasant Grove Road and Highway 71B in north Lowell and see what your support is building for tomorrow’s needs. Thank you all so very much for your support. Whether you are a monthly donor, a once a year donor, contribute to a food drive, support our efforts through advocacy, use our services, or simply remember we are there for those who need our help, you make us better today than we were yesterday. Because of you, someone will eat today. K
It is hard to believe that back- to- school time is here. Today, children are experiencing that mixed feeling of excitement of going back to school to see their friends and the disappointment that the freedom of summer is over. There are a couple of other things that excite a lot of students about returning to schools. One is school lunch. They know that every day they will receive a balanced meal for lunch, and in some cases, also get breakfast at school. The second is the school pantry program, a service of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. We ended the 2022-2023 school year with 16 active school pantries. Additionally, we are working with four other schools on a program to provide food for their school pantry, totaling 20 fully operational. There are 19 school districts in our four-county service area. Of those, nine have a free and reduced lunch percentage of 50% or higher. We are currently operating school pantries in six of those nine districts. I think it is important to point out that we have at least one school pantry in each county we serve. It is also important to point out that the school pantries would not exist without the commitment of the school administration and staff where they are located. This is a commitment to supporting not only the educational and emotional needs of the students, but also the nutritional needs of the entire family. For more information about school pantries, please email Sabrina Thiede, our programs director at: sabrina.thiede@nwafoodbank.org. This is from my files published in 2021. What a difference two years makes. “I know it is August because the calendar says so. However, you would not know it during my early morning walks. Temperatures the past few days have ranged from the low to upper 60’s, making my time on the trail system of Rogers much more pleasant. What does my renewed commitment to walking and the temperature have to do with food insecurity you might ask? I’m really not sure, I do know that when I walk, I have 40-45 minutes of quiet time to reflect, usually much of that time is spent thinking about how blessed I am to live and work in Northwest Arkansas; how thankful I am to work at the Food Bank supporting a mission I believe wholeheartedly in; and how important each and every one of you is in the fight against hunger. I try to say it a lot, but I don’t say it enough…Thank you for all you do to allow us to help our friends and neighbors.” Now the part about being thankful is certainly consistent, but this morning it was 80+ degrees before the sun came up. You certainly can tell it is August when you step outside. Heat takes its toll on people in a variety of ways. For a food insecure individual who lives in an un-airconditioned residence, having a healthy diet is even more important. I want to give a shout out to our staff and volunteers who are working hard in trying conditions every day. I’m sure this will not encourage you to volunteer, but earlier this week at 3PM, it was 95 degrees in our warehouse. Yet every day our staff and many volunteers brave that heat because they know our neighbors need our help. If you are interested in volunteering to help, please check out the volunteer tab on our website. September is Hunger Action Month. Again, this year, I will pick an orange shirt out of my closet EVERY DAY to wear to work. I’m still working up the courage to dye my beard orange….one of these years! More details on Hunger Action Month coming soon! Speaking of the calendar, September is the start of football season. Every team is still undefeated and every team has high hopes. Did you know that the Razorback stadium will seat over 70,000? Imagine all those people calling the Hogs. Now imagine that 100% of those cheering fans are food insecure. That’s right, over 70,000 of your northwest Arkansas neighbors do not have enough resources to put a complete meal on the table when it is time to eat. Finally, I want to encourage you to drive by the intersection of 71B and Pleasant Grove in north Lowell to take a glance at what you, the Northwest Arkansas community, are building. The Center for Hunger Relief is one more tool that we will use in the fight against food insecurity, not just for today, but for many years to come. Next month I will share some of the features the building will have that we do not have in our current facility. Stay hydrated and as cool as possible, and remember that because of you, someone will eat today. K
