Food program won’t benefit eligible Arkansas children until midsummer

From the Arkansas Advocate:

By July 10, most children in Arkansas will be well into their second month of summer break with five weeks of sunny, schoolless days under their belts, but some children will have spent those weeks without a reliable source of food.

Arkansas has one of the highest food insecurity rates in the nation and is one of only a few southern states that opted into a new summer food aid program, but the state Department of Human Services won’t get cards to participants until the second week of July.

Three dozen states are participating in a new federal food assistance program called the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or Summer EBT. The program is modeled off a similar service implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food program won’t benefit eligible Arkansas children until midsummer

Fred Miller/UA System Division Of Agriculture

Ashley Appel stocks the Appel Farms Store with fresh produce from the farm she operates with her husband, Travis, near Elm Springs.

Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance hosts food access summit

KUAR | By Maggie Ryan

The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance held a summit Wednesday to present the findings and recommendations from a study on food access.

The report was released by the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute and the Arkansas Governor's Food Desert Working Group, which was named in 2022 under former Gov. Asa Hutchinson. According to the report, 15% of Arkansans struggle with food insecurity, compared with the nationwide average of 10%.

Jimmy Wright is the president of Wright Food solutions, a consulting agency that helps communities with a high food need respond to issues of food insecurity. Wright gave the keynote address at the summit and said those addressing food insecurity must stay rooted in the communities they want to serve.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-09-14/arkansas-hunger-relief-alliance-hosts-food-access-summit

Dan Charles/NPR

Salad greens grown in a BrightFarms greenhouse on sale at a McCaffrey's grocery store.

New report urges legislative action to provide SNAP benefits to Arkansas’ Marshallese community

KUAR | By Antoinette Grajeda / Arkansas Advocate

A report released Thursday advocates for extending Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to the thousands of Marshallese migrants who lawfully reside in Arkansas and struggle with food insecurity.

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families worked with the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese for more than a year on the report, which recommends granting Marshallese migrants SNAP eligibility through one of three pieces of legislation currently under consideration by Congress, such as the Compacts of Free Association.

After testing nearly 70 nuclear bombs in the 1940s and 1950s that contaminated the Marshall Islands with radiation, the United States signed Compacts of Free Association (COFA) with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia. The compacts allow the U.S. to operate military bases in the Freely Associated States, while FAS citizens may live and work in the U.S. and its territories as lawful non-immigrants.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-09-01/new-report-urges-legislative-action-to-provide-snap-benefits-to-arkansas-marshallese-community

Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Northwest Arkansas Director Laura Kellams (left) looks on as Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese CEO Melisa Laelan (right) discusses a new report advocating for extending SNAP benefits to the Marshallese community. The two nonprofits released the report Aug. 31, 2023, during an event at The Jones Center in Springdale.