A Letter From Our President/CEO

“Thank you for the food for me and my mommy. The snacks were yummy.

Now my belly doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Recently we had a group of elementary school students send us drawings of hunger. This one especially reminded me of why we do what we do. No person, no matter how old or how young, how rich or how poor, no matter what race or religion should suffer with a belly that hurts.

Yesterday was our Annual Agency meeting. We had over 100 people present. In addition to agency partners, staff and board members in attendance, we had DeDe Priest, a member of the Feeding America Board of Directors join us, and a presentation by AHRA staffers Tomiko Towley and Lynn Sudderth on how Agencies could share information about SNAP, the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with their clients. By the way, if you are an agency and

would like additional information on this service provided by the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance please give us a call here at the Food Bank and we can hook you up.

Congratulations to our Agencies of the Year. Oasis Food Pantry of Bella Vista and 2nd Street Food Pantry were recognized for their service to their respective communities with a monetary grant to support their operations. Marge Hicks was recognized as Volunteer of the Year for her contribution of many, many hours of commitment, while Paula Miller received the Spirit Award. Speaking of volunteers, Sara Gallap announced that in 2015 we had over 6,900 of volunteer man hours donated to the Food Bank. These volunteer hours equate to over $148,000 in labor costs.

Overall the meeting was a celebration of our past successes mixed in the eye on the future.

Speaking of the eye on the future, last month I mentioned in my letter that this month I would start outlining some of the goals the board, staff and I have for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. This month I want to address two of those goals. First and foremost, I want the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank to be the leader in fighting hunger in our service area. In order to best do that, we need to be the conduit through which all agencies who attack hunger come together to fight the good fight and fight it together. I’ve heard it said “There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go, if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” There are literally hundreds of organizations in our service area that have the goal of feeding people. If we all attempt to accomplish this on our own, we are a splintered group who in some cases use our limited resources providing duplicated services. However, if we work together, with an open line of communication, we can take on the daunting task of eliminating hunger. Just to be clear, I don’t care who gets the credit as long as people get fed. Let us help you feed Northwest Arkansas.

The second goal I want to share is not one of philosophy but it is one of a more selfish nature. I need input from those of you on the front line of the hunger battle. I want to establish an Agency Council which brings volunteers from our 180 food pantries together on a quarterly basis to share ideas of how we as a food bank can improve our service to the pantries. I announced this yesterday at the annual meeting but for those of you who were not in attendance, I urge you to email me at kent@nwafoodbank.org to serve on this council. Our first meeting will be in mid to late April. There is more information to come on this, but I wanted to bring it to your attention so you can begin thinking of how you can serve. As I said yesterday in closing the Agency meeting, “This is your Food Bank.” I’m just the one with the keys.” Please feel free to call or email me with any questions, concerns, suggestions or comments. I look forward to hearing from you. (479)-872-8774.

In closing, I just want to give a shout out to the staff here at the Food Bank and thank them all for their willingness to listen to my ideas and share their ideas with me. They are truly a great group of individuals who collectively have the biggest heart in the entire world. Thank you all for a great 60 days.