Food Recovery in NWA

Opportunities & Action

The need to address food insecurity, particularly child hunger, in Arkansas is painfully well documented. USDA data puts Arkansas near the top of the list for the percentage of people that are “food insecure,” with a 19.2% rate, compared to the U.S. average rate of 14.7%. Even more alarming, 28.6% of Arkansas children are food insecure. More people than ever before are worried about where their next meal will come from.

Because food insecurity is an especially pervasive and crippling problem in Arkansas, food recovery is even more essential here than in other states and regions. Fortunately, there are plenty of charitable feeding organizations ready and willing to work with in-state food producers and retailers to get excess food to those Arkansans who need it most.

In Northwest Arkansas, Feed Fayetteville does a remarkable job of promoting food recovery and food literacy and of improving access to nutritious food for all members of the community. Businesses interested in donating food to Northwest Arkansas emergency feeding organizations should reference Feed Fayetteville’s calendar and map of meals for the needy.

All of the latest developments on Food Recovery activities in NW Arkansas are being tracked on the new foodrecoveryproject blog. We are very proud of the NW Arkansas community for working together on food recovery initiatives, and we are proud to play a role through our LL.M. Program Food Recovery Project.

The new blog is written by LL.M candidate Jeremy Baker, Visiting Professor Nicole Civita, and LL.M Program Coordinator, Sarah Hiatt.

Our efforts in this area are funded by a grant from the Women's Giving Circle.