A Little Rock task force on food deserts unanimously endorsed the idea of deploying a mobile grocery store, members of the Little Rock Board of Directors were told during a meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The recommendation and other findings from the task force's work were presented by Vice Mayor Kathy Webb, who previously co-chaired a working group on food deserts formed under former Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
In addition to her position as the Ward 3 representative on the city board, Webb is the outgoing chief executive officer of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. She will step down at the end of next month, the organization announced earlier this year.
Mayor Frank Scott Jr. announced the creation of the food desert task force as well as a task force on downtown density in January.
As part of its work, the mayoral task force reviewed the report produced by the governor's working group, Webb said Tuesday.
"Initially when we started out, of course, everybody wants a brick-and-mortar store and they wanted it already to be up and running by now," Webb said. "And that's not practical and probably not gonna happen in a lot of cases."
She shared the results of the task force's community survey that garnered approximately 650 responses collected in person and online.
In particular, at-large City Director Joan Adcock was responsible for getting more surveys turned in than anyone else -- even going door-to-door a little bit -- as officials attended meetings in the community, Webb said.
About 30% of respondents were 65 or older and approximately 10% of respondents completed the Spanish version of the survey.
About half of the respondents said they visited a grocery store once or more per week, Webb said.
Four out of 10 respondents in the identified food desert wards -- Wards 1, 2, 6 and 7 -- said the distance they needed to travel to get food was challenging, according to a city slideshow published online.
The response to the question varied by ward, Webb noted. Ward 1 had the largest share of respondents who answered in the affirmative, with 52%, she said.
Overall, 40% of respondents said they worried about food insecurity, Webb said, calling the figure "extremely high" for a state where about 15-16% of residents experience food insecurity.
Additionally, 63% of respondents in the wards that were identified as food deserts called the cost of food their biggest challenge, according to the slides.
City board members might be asked to vote on some of the task force's recommendations during the first quarter of next year, Webb suggested.
City officials made a visit to Memphis in October to view the operations of a mobile grocery store there.
Acting City Manager Emily Jordan Cox told city board members Tuesday that the mobile grocery store appeared to be a "game-changer" for its patrons.
Fruits and vegetables are stocked in a refrigerated section, she said. The trailer pulls up to the same place at consistent times, according to Cox.
Task force members also recommend allocating money for market studies to allow experts to assess whether a certain area might be suitable for a grocery store, according to Webb.
A third recommendation was for officials to work with policymakers to improve access to food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Webb said.