With nearly one in five Arkansans unsure of where his or her next meal is coming from, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture is leading a statewide effort to improve access to food.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood insecurity is a major challenge in our state,\u201d said Deacue Fields, vice president-agriculture for the University of Arkansas System, and head of the Division of Agriculture. \u201cEarlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a study showing that Arkansas has the highest rate of food insecurity in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the sheer breadth and depth of our mission within the food system \u2014 everything from helping improve farm productivity, nutrition education, and the building of local food systems and improving the health of those with low resources \u2014 the Division of Agriculture is in a strong position to make a difference in food accessibility,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n
The first step toward change is the appointment of Hunter Goodman as an executive fellow, a first-of-its-kind position within the Division of Agriculture. Goodman started in the 18-month position on Aug.15.<\/p>\n
Her mission will be to improve collaboration with internal and external partners, make it easier to share data and leverage resources, and find new ways to increase food production and access, Fields said.<\/p>\n
Goodman is an assistant professor with the Division of Agriculture\u2019s outreach arm, the Cooperative Extension Service. She is also affiliated faculty in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. She will continue her other duties in addition to leading this effort.<\/p>\n
Fields said Goodman\u2019s work within extension\u2019s Community, Economic and Professional Development department has demonstrated her ability to bring together the right people to accomplish a goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for UADA to drive change through collaboration, which is one of our core values,\u201d he said. \u201cEliminating hunger will require the efforts of our entire organization and all of our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodman said her first undertaking is to create a statewide task force to work collectively to improve food security and health. She is convening a foundational meeting September 29 at the University of Arkansas System office, with representatives from more than 30 organizations invited. System President Jay Silveria will welcome the participants and Fields will talk about UADA\u2019s priorities in this effort.<\/p>\n
The Division of Agriculture conducts research and outreach into all aspects of the food system from farm to table through its Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many ways that the division is working to address food insecurity,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cWhen UADA and partners across Arkansas who are also passionate about food insecurity lean into our strengths and combine our efforts, we can create impactful, measurable change.\u201d<\/p>\n
CLICK HERE to read more Regional News on our website. Tell your friends and family that thanks to our advertisers, they can read Magnolia area news for free on our website.<\/p>\n
Email your news to news@magnoliareporter.com to get it read by thousands of daily visitors. Distributing your news through Facebook alone means you\u2019re just talking to yourself.<\/p>\n
Download the Bluesky app and see what we post on Bluesky. @magnolia-reporter.bsky.social .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With nearly one in five Arkansans unsure of where his or her next meal is coming from, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture is leading a statewide effort to improve access to food. \u201cFood insecurity is a major challenge in our state,\u201d said Deacue Fields, vice president-agriculture for the University of Arkansas System, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5008,5006,5004,5007,5005,31670],"class_list":["post-38313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arkansas","tag-arkansas","tag-arkansas-dining","tag-arkansas-food","tag-arkansas-grocery-stores","tag-arkansas-restaurants","tag-regional_news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117361768111581106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}