During the Christmas holiday, two groups at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock were busy helping to feed families that otherwise would have trouble feeding themselves.
On Dec. 16, members of the university's staff senate prepared 37 food bags in Dickinson Hall as part of its Helping Hands project. Helping Hands provides holiday meal baskets for eligible UALR employees and students to provide a traditional holiday dinner for their families. Via the program, which has gone on for more than 20 years, donations are collected through the university community and fundraisers at local restaurants. The financial donations are used to buy Kroger gift cards so gift basket recipients can get a ham or turkey to go with their holiday meal and any additional food not received through donations.
In 2020, the senate received applications for 30 baskets. Members collected donations of stuffing/dressing mix, cornbread mix, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, chicken/vegetable broth, green peas, black eyed peas, corn, yams/sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce for the gift bags. Recipients were able to pick them up Dec. 17 at the University District Building. Households with five or more people received two bags of food.
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Meanwhile, Little Rock Wrestling -- the university's wrestling team -- held a fundraiser to collect ham donations for Arkansas families in need. The team and coaches met Dec. 18 outside the Greg Hatcher Wrestling Center to wrap and bag 65 prepared hams. The men then loaded the hams onto a van owned by the charitable organization Every Arkansan -- which identified and distributed the hams to families that needed them. Each ham could feed 12-15 people.
The team began the fundraiser in 2019; 20 hams were donated to Every Arkansan that year. "In the future, I hope we can donate hundreds of hams to people in need as this continues to grow," head wrestling coach Neil Erisman said in a news release. "Our goal in the future is to do everything we can to help feed as many people across Arkansas as possible."
-- Story and photos by Helaine R. Williams and Rachel O'Neal