{"id":22363,"date":"2020-04-08T19:08:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T19:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arknews.org\/?p=22363"},"modified":"2020-04-09T15:59:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T15:59:17","slug":"hunger-relief-during-a-pandemic-complicates-a-complicated-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/08\/hunger-relief-during-a-pandemic-complicates-a-complicated-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunger relief during a pandemic complicates a complicated problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In times of pandemic, such as the COVID-19 outbreak, one quickly gets down to covering the basics: food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, Arkansas, a poor state, ranks among the worst in the nation for food insecurity. Nearly 20 percent of Pulaski County\u2019s population is estimated as food insecure by the food-network nonprofit Feeding America; in Phillips County, it\u2019s estimated at more than 30 percent. (For those who can\u2019t square the circle of a state ranking high in both food insecurity and obesity, note that the cheapest and most readily available things to eat in most food insecure areas aren\u2019t very nutritious and are usually high in fat.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn times like this, people need to recognize how easily [food insecurity] can happen,\u201d Tomiko Townley, advocacy director of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is a statewide organization that works with school districts, hospitals, and the like in partnership with the state\u2019s six food banks. The food banks are located in Mountain Home, Texarkana, Fort Smith, Little Rock, Jonesboro and Bethel Heights (Benton County). Fortunately, Jonesboro\u2019s food bank did not get hit in the March 28 tornado that ripped through the Northeast Arkansas town.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Members from all six food banks sit on the Alliance\u2019s board, but the banks have autonomy in how they are run.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou have to qualify to be a food bank; they\u2019re basically warehouses,\u201d Townley said, \u201cso food safety, and how to distribute [food], is important.\u201d Pantries, in turn, get their food from these banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arkansas County saw its first official COVID-19 case on Monday, March 30. Stuttgart\u2019s ICCM Food Bank, serving the north part of the county, had already implemented curbside pick-up at the beginning of the month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep people in their cars,\u201d coordinator Bobby Bradberry said. \u201cWe\u2019re just serving them curbside. If it gets bad enough, and we\u2019re mandated to shut down, we\u2019ll shut down.\u201d He said there\u2019s been no drop off in volunteerism. And Bradberry said demand, so far, \u201cis not much different than what it was last year.\u201d The Stuttgart pantry distributes groceries 11:30 to 1 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. \u201cWe\u2019re still working; we\u2019re still giving out groceries,\u201d board member Marianne Maynard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some pantries in Chicot, Cleburne, Dallas, Drew, Faulkner, Garland, Jefferson, Lee, Lincoln, Ouachita, Pulaski, Saline Union, Van Buren and White counties are closed until further notice. The list, at<a href=\"http:\/\/www.arkansasfoodbank.org\/\"> arkansasfoodbank.org<\/a>, is evolving. However, even in these counties with pantry closures, others may remain open. \u201cWe\u2019re, like, two or three weeks in, so there\u2019s a lot of learning going on right now, and a lot of responding,\u201d Townley said. For those needing help, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arkansasfoodbank.org\/\"> arkansasfoodbank.org<\/a> also has a list of food pantries that are still open to help their communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hunger relief was already a patchwork system of federal, state and local governments, with foundations, corporations and individual advocates. However \u2014 as in every aspect of American life during this pandemic \u2014 there\u2019s much uncertainty, and no centralized information forthcoming federally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs far as a strategy, and a lot of long-term goal setting, that\u2019s not happening right now. There\u2019s no data collection. Communities are just turning to each other right now. The best we can do,\u201d Townley said, \u201cis organize with our other service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe reality is, everything takes a long time to do well,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much we can\u2019t control. But if we can track how well some of these programs work in a pandemic, we can make them work afterward. We can do better, and the people with the least deserve better. And we can do better for them, when we come out of this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Contact the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance at 501-399-9999 or<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.arkansasfoodbank.org\/\"><em> arkansasfoodbank.org<\/em><\/a><em> for information on food assistance resources in your area.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This reporting is courtesy of the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.arknews.org\/\">Arkansas Nonprofit News Network<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Communities are just turning to each other right now.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":22366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.3 - 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