It’s no surprise that the Arkansas Foodbank calls its annual fundraiser Empty Bowls. That’s what the food bank has been trying to fill for hungry Arkansans since 1984. On Thursday, the 12th Empty Bowls moves to a new location, Next Level Events in Little Rock’s historic Union Station.
Longtime supporters, Anne and Dr. Larry Miller, have stepped up to the plate - or bowl - to cochair the event. They are hoping for a crowd of 350 and a haul of $150,000 through tickets sales and silent and live auctions. Kroger is the sustaining sponsor of Empty Bowls.
Although the Millers promise the evening will be a fun-filled event, the reason for it is serious: fighting hunger in Arkansas.
“One in four children in Arkansas struggles with hunger everyday,” says Larry Miller, a psychiatrist with the Division of Medical Services (Medicaid) as well as a clinical professor of psychiatry at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “Although children may receive breakfast and lunch at school, what happens when they go home for the weekend? And Arkansas ranks worst in the nation for senior [citizens] who go hungry.”
Arkansas Foodbank evolved from a group called the Arkansas Hunger Task Force, which found that some residents in central Arkansas were having problems putting food on the table. The local food pantries which then existed were too small to be able to accumulate and store food. A warehouse on Asher Avenue in southwest Little Rock was established. For the next 15 years (and a couple of buildings later), the food bank was able to keep up with demand.
In 1999, a professional nonprofit executive, Phyllis Haynes, was hired to manage the food bank. By the time Haynes retired last year, the food bank had grown into an $8 million operation with 40 employees based out of a new 73,000-square-foot storage facility on 65th Street.
The Arkansas Foodbank serves 33 of Arkansas’ 75 counties and operates two additional warehouses in Warren and Caddo Valley. Last year, Arkansas Foodbank distributed more than 20 million pounds of food to 300 agencies (soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters) in its service area.
In addition to private donations, the food bank receives food from companies like Kroger, Wal-Mart and Performance Food Group. An area of the warehouse is set up as a small grocery store called the Agency Mart, where food agencies can come and shop for items they need. To reach agencies in rural countries that don’t have modes of transportation to Little Rock, food is delivered by trucks driven by students from Diesel Driving Academy.
And the food bank is not just about packaged food and canned goods. It now has a 10,000-square-foot garden of vegetables and berries, which can be stored in the Agency Mart’s produce cooler. Meats and dairy products are stored in a cooler/freezer in the warehouse.
Arkansas Foodbank calculates that 17,429,966 meals were served to hungry Arkansans last year.
FOOD PANTRY HISTORY
John van Hengel of Phoenix is credited with founding the first food bank in Phoenix in 1967. He was a volunteer at a community kitchen, serving meals to hungry people, when he learned that some grocery stores threw away food because of damaged packaging or an approaching expiration date. He began collecting these foods for his organization but soon ran out of room for storage. Van Hengel realized the need for a centralized facility from which different organizations could obtain food for those they were helping.
Several years after founding the St. Mary’s Food Bank in 1967 (which still operates), Van Hengel, with the help of a federal grant, established 18 more food banks across the country. An organization called America’s Second Harvest grew out of this expansion. It eventually merged with another organization called Foodchain. In 2000, the resulting organization changed its name to Feeding America, now the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity. It is based in Chicago, and Arkansas Foodbank is a member.
HUNGRY CHILDREN
Arkansas Foodbank estimates that a great number of children in Arkansas don’t know where their next meal is coming from. The idea of a hungry child breaks Anne Miller’s heart.
“A hungry child can’t grow. A hungry child can’t learn and develop,” she says.
“Feeding the Future Today” is a new strategy which addresses the problem of children who go home after school to an empty cupboard. As a result, the food bank is establishing food pantries in a number of schools in order to send children home with food. Homeless children are a growing problem, too. They need access to foods that do not require refrigeration or cooking. Arkansas Foodbank is working with an elementary school with a high number of homeless children to determine if weekend food bags and access to a school pantry will help meet their needs.
EMPTY BOWLS
It takes a lot of helping hands to feed hungry Arkansans across the state. For this week’s Empty Bowls fundraiser, the “donated meals” are being prepared by Ashley’s, Trio’s, Vesuvio Bistro, Scallions, The Pantry, Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe, Cantina Laredo, Cupcakes on Kavanaugh, Starving Artist Cafe, Apple Spice Junction and Cheers in the Heights. Performance Food Group is donating the ingredients for the dishes prepared by each restaurant. Glazer’s is providing libations. Partygoers will enjoy music by the jazz quartet Rodney Block Band. Meteorologist Tom Brannon of KTHV-TV, Channel 11, will serve as master of ceremonies.
When the Millers moved from Boston to Little Rock 20 years ago, they delved into community volunteerism. Larry Miller has served four years on the board of Arkansas Foodbank, representing the Jewish Federation of Arkansas. Supporting the food bank has been a labor of love for the Millers, and on Thursday they are looking forward to gathering the necessary resources to fill a lot of empty bowls.
Arkansas Foodbank fundraiser, Empty Bowls, will be held from 6-9 p.m. Thursday at Next Level Events at Union Station. Tickets are $75 per person and available online at arkansasfoodbank.org or by calling the food bank at (501) 565-8121. For a tour of the warehouse and garden at Arkansas Foodbank, contact Polly Deems, the outreach coordinator.
High Profile, Pages 35 on 04/20/2014