FORT SMITH -- The River Valley Regional Food Bank put a new refrigerated truck into service Friday, delivering soup and snacks to 14,400 Van Buren and Fort Smith students before the three-day weekend.
The purchase of the 2016 Hino truck was made possible by a $120,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation State Giving Program. A news release from the foundation Friday said the truck will give the food bank additional refrigerated storage to allow it to better serve the community.
Food bank Director of Marketing and Development Ken Kupchick said the organization is grateful for the grant and the longtime support of Wal-Mart.
"We all know hunger hurts, and as many as 30 percent of the children in our community know this hard reality firsthand," he said. "As a result of Wal-Mart's support, we will help alleviate the fear in children of not knowing when they will receive their next meal."
He said the new truck was delivering extra food Friday to students participating in the Community Clearinghouse backpack program, which sends weekend food and snacks home with low-income children. The food bank donation for the "super weekend" provides food for the extra weekend day, he said.
Students who don't get enough to eat over long weekends are often sluggish when they return to school, Kupchick said he learned from school officials. And once they get a good meal at school, the sudden "rush" of food into their systems sometimes makes them sick.
He said each of the 10,400 students in the backpack program from 16 schools in Fort Smith and the 4,000 from Van Buren schools were to receive two cans of soup and a four-pack of chocolate pudding.
"The Wal-Mart Foundation is very pleased to be supporting the River Valley Regional Food Bank and is committed to helping those in need in the communities we serve," Wal-Mart Director of Public Affairs Michael Lindsey said in a statement Friday. "Through this grant, we are hopeful underserved residents in the River Valley will benefit from the additional donations the food bank will be able to receive."
Started in 1987, the food bank last year distributed 2.5 million pounds of food to 196 member agencies in eight counties of west-central Arkansas, Kupchick said.
Even though the country has largely recovered from the recession of 2007-09, demand for the food bank's services continues to grow, he said. Statistics show that about 30 percent of children and 25 percent of seniors in the Fort Smith area suffer from food insecurity.
Food insecurity is when a person misses meals or eats less than what is adequate to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle, Kupchick said.
"Unfortunately, what was used in times of emergency has become a chronic way of life for many low-income families," Kupchick said.
State Desk on 02/13/2016