Programs | Basic Service | Kids Cafe | Backpacks For Kids | Rural Delivery Program | Fresh Produce Initiative | Senior Supplement | Protein Program | Gifts-In-Kind

Programs

Basic Service

The Arkansas Foodbank Network was formed in 1984 to do exactly what we do now: Locate, secure, and distribute (provide) food to member agencies that serve the hungry. Today, we have over 400 member agencies in 33 central and southern Arkansas counties These agencies include food pantries, which provide non-prepared food and other grocery products to those in need; soup kitchens, which provide hot meals; programs that assist low-income elderly people and children; and many other programs that reach out to Arkansans.

The Arkansas Foodbank Network distributed more than 8.5 million pounds of food to its member agencies in 2007.

Almost 34,000 pounds daily.

Our agencies serve about 23,000 individuals in any given week.

In addition, over the past 24 years we have identified niche needs within the hunger community and developed programs to address those needs:

Kids Cafe:

In 2000, the Arkansas Foodbank Network, in conjunction with America 's Second Harvest — the Nation's Food Bank Network, partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs to establish the Kid's Cafe program. Kid's Cafe is the nation's largest after school meal service and nutritional education program exclusively for children in need. Currently, the Foodbank is serving more than 1150 kids a month in eleven Boys and Girls Clubs throughout central and southern Arkansas. This program is reaching some of the states most underprivileged kids and giving them the opportunity to succeed in life. Mike Neuhofel, former Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Little Rock and North Little Rock says that Kid's Cafe is "teaching kids' life skills about eating healthy and choosing foods with nutritional value."

For more information, contact Fredrick Love at (501)565-8121 x17 or .

List Locations:

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Backpacks For Kids:

Backpacks for Kids provides underserved children with food for the weekends and holidays. At the end of each week children involved in the program are able to pick up from their Guidance Counselor a backpack of food that has been previously prepared by volunteers. These packs are filled with nutritious, child-friendly meals that children are able to prepare themselves at home.

In the 2007-2008 school year , the Arkansas Foodbank Network is providing backpacks for 327 children at Holly Grove Elementary, Anna Strong Elementary, Park Avenue Elementary, Lynch Drive Elementary and Gillett Elementary Schools. The Foodbank is also partnering with the Church at Rock Creek to serve 285 children in the Little Rock and North Little Rock School Districts.

For more information about Backpacks for Kids, contact Fredrick Love at (501)565-8121 x 17 or .

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Rural Delivery Program:

Access to the Arkansas Foodbank Network from isolated, rural locales, especially in the Delta, is sometimes challenging. Food pantries and other organizations located in some of Arkansas' most impoverished areas have a hard time getting to the warehouse to pick up food. Therefore, the Arkansas Foodbank Network truck delivers food on a monthly basis so that the agencies in these areas have food to distribute to hungry Arkansans. Deliveries are made each month to areas including Pine Bluff, Warren, Marianna, Prairie County, Clarendon, Helena and Van Buren County.

For more information, contact Frank Hilliard at (501)565-8121 x 16 or .

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Fresh Produce Initiative:

Fresh produce is becoming harder for those in need to obtain. Purchasing fresh foods is not cost effective for food service organizations and prices in the grocery store are rising significantly. These factors cause impoverished people to eat less expensive and less healthy foods.

The Arkansas Foodbank Network has made it a priority to get donated truckloads of fresh produce including sweet potatoes, corn, apples, oranges, cantaloupe and more. These truckloads are available to the Foodbank's 33-county service area as a healthy alternative.

For more information about the Fresh Produce Initiative, contact Frank Hilliard at (501)565-8121 x 16 or .

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Senior Supplement:

The Arkansas Foodbank Network, in partnership with CareLink (Central Arkansas Area Agency on Aging), sponsors the Senior Supplement program to help seniors in central Arkansas who struggle to stretch their Social Security income to pay rent, utilities, medicine and food. This program provides 55 seniors with a monthly box of groceries to help with the burden of expenses. Volunteers pack the boxes at the Foodbank warehouse. The boxes are distributed by volunteers at CareLink and the Visiting Nurses Association on the third Saturday of each month. Recipients are selected by CareLink and the Visiting Nurses Association.

To find out more about the Senior Supplement Program, contact Fredrick Love at (501)565-8121 x 17 or flove@arkansasfoodbank.org.

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Protein Program

Impacted by the rising costs of gasoline, high-cost protein products such as beef, chicken and pork are becoming harder for people in need to obtain. To address this growing challenge, the Arkansas Foodbank Network has developed the Protein Program. This initiative acquires protein products and makes them available to member agencies of the Arkansas Foodbank Network. Donations, grants and other support for the Protein Program are appreciated.

For more information about the Protein Program, contact Frank Hilliard at (501)565-8121 x 16 or .

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Gifts-In-Kind:

Food is not the only necessity that our struggling neighbors need. Products such as household items, personal care products, office equipment and supplies, shoes, clothing, toys, novelties and children's items are donated to Gifts-In-Kind by local businesses and national Fortune 500 companies, to be distributed to agencies that work with Arkansans who need help. Gifts-In-Kind was established in 1997 and now serves more than 250 non-profit organizations and churches. All products are new.

Gifts-In-Kind was established through the combined efforts of the United Way of Pulaski County, the Arkansas Foodbank Network and Gifts-In-Kind International. It operates as an independent program sponsored by the Arkansas Foodbank Network and is located in the southeast corner of the Foodbank warehouse.

Contact Pamela Williams at (501)565-8121 x 26 or for more information about joining Gifts-In-Kind of Little Rock.

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