LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas continues to rank amongst the top of a list nobody wants to lead: the nation’s most food-insecure states. One in every five Arkansans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. KARK & FOX16 are helping fight hunger this week alongside the Arkansas Foodbank.
Kate Jenkins is the marketing and communications director for the food bank and illuminated some of the needs here in the Natural State.
“Arkansas actually ranks highest in the nation for food insecurity. About 20% of Arkansans face food insecurity every day, which means about 1 in 5 Arkansans aren’t quite sure where that meal is coming from,” Jenkins said. “It gets worse for kids unfortunately with about 1 in 4 kids facing food insecurity every day.”
This also comes at a time in which the price of groceries continues to rise, coupled with gas and a winter coming that certainly won’t help costs; it paints a tough picture for families.
“A lot of families are going through it right now because the rising cost of living just keeps rising unfortunately,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said oftentimes the people struggling the most are hiding in plain sight, and she says it’s our job to help out.
“Our neighbors that are facing food insecurity look just like you and me. They are your next-door neighbor. They are the granny that you see at the grocery store who’s pinching pennies to get the beans that she wants to get,” Jenkins said. “People who are facing hunger every day are just regular human beings and it’s our job to wrap around them and support them.”
KARK and FOX16 have partnered with the Arkansas Foodbank for Central Arkansas Restaurant Week, alongside over a hundred restaurants to collect proceeds from select items and use them to help aid the fight against hunger.
Initiatives like this, Jenkins said, go a long way in helping make sure more Arkansas families have food on the table.
“It’s important that we have these weeks where we can fundraise and work together because the only way we’re going to solve the hunger crisis is by working together as a community,” Jenkins said.
She retains optimism and says while Rome wasn’t built in a day, every bit helps.
“For myself personally I just have the most stubborn hope that everything’s going to be okay. That we are going to solve the hunger crisis eventually and that all of our neighbors are going to get fed,” Jenkins said.
To learn more or contribute to the Arkansas Foodbank, visit ArkansasFoodbank.org.
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