Fundraiser aims to curb hunger in young and old

Lance and Ruth Whitney volunteer for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and are co-chairmen of the organization’s annual Serving up Solutions fundraiser on Thursday. Arkansas ranks fifth in the country in terms of children living in food-insecure households, or those in which residents have worried in the last year that their food would run out before they got money to buy more.
Lance and Ruth Whitney volunteer for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and are co-chairmen of the organization’s annual Serving up Solutions fundraiser on Thursday. Arkansas ranks fifth in the country in terms of children living in food-insecure households, or those in which residents have worried in the last year that their food would run out before they got money to buy more.

The numbers are astounding.

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“Every celebration — everything we do as a family — also entails eating and food, and it’s sad to think that some people don’t have the [means] to support themselves and just do everyday nutrition. That touches your heart,” says Lance Whitney, who with his wife, Ruth, is co-chairman of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance’s largest annual fundraiser, Serving up Solutions, scheduled for Thursday.

More than one in four Arkansas children under age 18 lived in households that faced the risk of hunger in 2014, according to Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap 2016 report, which was released in April.

The state ranks fifth in the nation in terms of children living in a food-insecure household, with some 185,600 children -- or 26.3 percent -- at risk of going hungry in 2014.

Nationwide, some 15.3 million children under the age of 18, or 20.9 percent of all children in the country, lived in food-insecure households in 2014.

These are households in which residents have worried in the last year that their food would run out before they got money to buy more. Or maybe they ate less than they felt they should because there wasn't enough money for food. Or perhaps they even skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food.

On the older end of the age spectrum, 24.9 percent of Arkansas senior citizens over the age of 60 are facing the risk of hunger, according to The State of Senior Hunger in America 2014 report, which was released June 1.

Arkansas' rate of senior food insecurity is 9.1 percent above the national average and also has topped the past four reports, which are released by the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger.

Overall in Arkansas, an estimated 567,250 people, or 19.1 percent of the state's population, are considered food insecure, the Map the Meal Gap report states.

Lance and Ruth Whitney know these statistics. The husband and wife know some senior citizens have to choose between life-giving medicine and food. They also know that some children get in bed at night with growling stomachs.

This knowledge and more is why the Whitneys volunteer with the Little Rock-based Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, a nonprofit umbrella organization with the mission of unifying an effort "to reduce hunger and improve access to nutritious food by providing tools and resources, empowerment, advocacy, education and research."

The alliance, formed in 2004 by six Feeding America food bank members around the state, now consists of nearly 500 members, from local food pantries and soup kitchens to state-level hunger programs and global food wholesalers and retailers.

In 2014, the six original food bank members, along with the Project Hope Food Bank in Hot Springs, distributed 44,032,106 pounds of food, or the equivalent of 36,693,421 meals, to programs and agencies that directly feed Arkansans in need.

The alliance's Arkansas Gleaning Project, which gathers crops left after harvest, has made 7 million pounds of fresh produce available to low-income Arkansans since its start in 2008.

The alliance is a lead partner in Arkansas for the No Kid Hungry campaign, as well. More than 4 million summer meals were served to Arkansas children at risk of hunger in 2014 alone. No Kid Hungry also provides school breakfasts and after-school meal programs during the school year.

Fighting hunger in Arkansas is a huge challenge, though, and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance supports its mission through grants, donations and its largest fundraiser of the year, Thursday's Serving up Solutions, an event that includes dinner served to guests by more than 45 state legislators, including members of the Arkansas Legislative Hunger Caucus; silent and live auctions; a "live painting" by John Deering of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette being auctioned; and more.

The Whitneys are co-chairmen of the 2016 event.

"The money raised is given to the regional food pantries," says Ruth Whitney, founder and chief executive officer of Little Rock-based inVeritas, a global public affairs firm started in 2009. "It's given in support of buying food directly. It's used to support the organization itself in terms of education and advocacy.

"It's a great event that is a lot of fun. It takes a lot of great people to make it a successful event."

The event exceeded its goal of $115,000 for hunger relief in 2015.

Whitney first got involved with the alliance through her company, which supports several organizations such as the Arkansas Rice Depot, Our House and Helping Hands. She became a member of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance board in 2011.

Growing up the daughter of a Lutheran minister based in Fort Smith, Whitney witnessed the importance of a local food pantry in fighting hunger.

"You think about the blessings you've had -- and obviously we've been blessed personally, our family has never experienced hunger or poverty," she says. "For all the people who have supported us, it makes sense for us to give back to those who are less fortunate and need support in a variety of ways. It's a meaningful way to do it."

The couple, married for 25 years, have their faith, family and friends. They are the parents to young adult children: Hannah, 22, and Noah, 21.

All these blessings mean it's a "no-brainer" when it comes to helping others, Lance Whitney says.

"We've had opportunities, but yet we are also not hidden and we expose ourselves to what's out there and what the needs are," says Whitney, who works as the design center manager at Ethan Allen in Little Rock. "Every celebration -- everything we do as a family -- also entails eating and food, and it's sad to think that some people don't have the [means] to support themselves and just do everyday nutrition. That touches your heart.

"We want to be able to help others. ... None of us can exist without all the support that is around us. ... It's a continuous circle. It's a way of life ... ."

To donate to the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, visit arhungeralliance.org/donate/.

High Profile on 06/19/2016

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