Walmart Foundation awards $750,000 grant to multiple organizations to battle food insecurity

Christina Randall
·2 min read
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BENTONVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Walmart Foundation awards a $750,000 grant to the Northwest Arkansas Food Insecurity Community of Practice.

The Community of Practice is a collaboration between the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and more than 20 regional organizations.

Jenni Vaughan, a dietitian nutritionist at UAMS, says grants like this one are vital to keeping Northwest Arkansas fed.

“That kind of funding is extremely important. We know that Arkansas has the highest rate of food insecurity in the country,” said Vaughan.

Bill Crawford, director of Helping Hands Food Pantry, says Arkansas having the highest rate of food insecurity isn’t surprising.

“I think food insecurity is a much bigger problem than people actually want to admit. We have a true problem. A true problem in Benton County,” said Crawford.

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Crawford says the high price of groceries is one reason for the increase in families utilizing local pantries and other food resources.

“The simple cost of groceries has brought more people in. I mean, for a family of four to feed them costs a small fortune,” said Crawford.

For April, Helping Hands spent $15,000 to keep its pantry fully stocked.

“That’s probably double what we were doing this time last year,” said Crawford.

Vaughan says the grant from the foundation will help bring more organizations together to fight food insecurity in our area.

“It allows the organizations to talk with each other, understand where there might be efforts being duplicated but also how they can collaborate and implement projects together,” said Vaughan.

Vaughan says Community of Practice will add members from the education and health care sectors to create innovative projects for food distribution. Those groups will be added over the next 18 months.

Since its launch in 2020, the community of practice has worked to increase access to nutrition programs and has focused on improving equitable and inclusive healthy food access. This includes installing food lockers, training and building capacity at community-based organizations to boost outreach for nutrition programs and more.

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