FEEDING THE HUNGRY OF NORTHWEST ARKANSAS

Transcription

1 FEEDING THE HUNGRY OF NORTHWEST ARKANSAS Math for AAS EMPACTS project Spring 2014 Instructor: Gary Bender Group members: Kate Keller, Karen Lankford, Brandy Nash

2 Project Overview Raise awareness by sharing statistics about poverty in our communities Focus on the NWA Food Bank and its goals to provide food to the hungry in four counties The need for access to fresh, healthy food and education Show what projects are currently underway in our communities Provide suggestions of how to get involved and contact information Suggest ideas for future projects

3 Did you know? -One in four people in Northwest Arkansas faces food insecurity every week -According to the 2000 Census, Benton and Washington counties are two of the top three counties with the most people living below the poverty level -The total number of people living in poverty in the Northwest Arkansas four largest cities (Rogers, Bentonville, Springdale, and Fayetteville) was 23,100 in By 2015, it is estimated that Northwest Arkansas will have the largest population of poverty in the state 1 of 4 People in NWA face food insecurity 25% of people in NWA face food insecurity

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5 The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, whose mission is to nourish our community by feeding hungry people, serves over 700,000 people annually in Benton, Washington, Madison, and Carroll counties through their partnerships with local human service agencies. The Food Bank is a 22,000 square foot warehouse that is a distribution source for more than 180 partner agencies such as food pantries, senior centers, human service, agencies, and other non-profits in our community. Every day in Northwest Arkansas, there are nearly 100,000 hungry people. NWA Food Bank s goal is to make sure that all who are facing or experiencing hunger have access to nutritious food. In 2013 the Food Bank distributed 6.7 million pounds of food. It was established in 1988 by a group of concerned citizens who saw the need for hunger assistance in NWA.

6 How the NWA Food Bank operates

7 How to get involved -Volunteer in the warehouse by sorting and organizing food -Host a food drive -Host a garden fresh food drive by donating the extra harvest from your garden or from your neighborhood s garden -Hunters can donate meat packaged by a certified source (check with NWA Food Bank for more details) Sign up and forms can be found at

8 The need for fresh, healthy food and education Who s doing what in our communities -Apple Seeds Urban Teaching Farm -Fayetteville Orchard -SNAP Food Stamps program -Feed Fayetteville -Tri Cycle Farms

9 Apple Seeds and its Urban Teaching Farm Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville has donated money to Apple Seeds, an organization that inspires healthy living through gardenbased education, so that they can reach their goal of $55,000 to begin building an Urban Teaching Farm. The Urban Teaching Farm, a partnership between ONF and Apple Seeds, will be a two-acre community farm next to ONF on College Ave in Fayetteville that will serve as a regional gardening resource providing school garden training, garden workshops, school field trips, and a demonstration garden.

10 Fayetteville s Community Orchard -Fayetteville s first community orchard planted at the Yvonne Richardson Community Center and is the result of the collaboration between Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Department and Ames Orchard and Nursery -The grant for the project came as a result of the high-percentage of foodinsecure households in Arkansas and the reported 37 percent of children in Washington County who are food-insecure -Volunteers were introduced to plans for the orchard and helped plant 12 trees of several varieties. While the trees will take several years to produce fruit, Guy Ames, the owner of the nursery says that he hopes they ll have enough fruit to donate to local food pantries as well as to use for cooking demonstrations with the children at the community center. The community center also includes a Kid Crop Community Garden, which serves to teach children about how food grows and how to cook it. -Mr. Ames plans on conducting pruning workshops at the community center until the community takes over caring for the orchard.

11 The grant for the orchard came as a result of the high percentage of food insecurity among children in Washington county 37% of children in Washington County have food insecurites

12 SNAP EBT Benefits at Northwest Arkansas Farmers Markets -Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program evolved out of the Food Stamp program and is focused on providing fresh, healthy options to those who qualify - Double Your Dollars market match program with funding support from the Walmart Foundation helps provide an incentive program that encourages healthy food choices by matching Farmers Market purchases dollar for dollar, up to a $20 market visit -Feed Fayetteville hosts SNAP extension programs such as classes in gardening and healthy cooking -Currently, 19 markets and 112 vendors accept SNAP

13 SNAP Program -Enables participants to purchase plants and seeds with SNAP benefits and supplement food budget with food that can be grown themselves -Garden plots are available free of charge at the Fayetteville Community Food Hub to provide a space for SNAP participants to learn about gardening and grow food -Garden is grown and tended as a community effort -Once participants are registered, they can use benefits to purchase plants and seeds from farmers markets -For more information, snapgardens@feedfayetteville.org

14 Feed Fayetteville -Feed Fayetteville was founded to cultivate proactive, durable solutions to local hunger, childhood obesity and the relationships between both of these hotspots with a focus upon supporting local farmers and producers in our community. - Our mission is to alleviate hunger and create community food security by cultivating a local sustainable food network. While the current movement to support local foods is growing exponentially, Feed Fayetteville aims to ensure that under-served low-income populations will also have access to high quality local healthy food. We focus upon ensuring that all community residents have access to nutritional, safe and affordable foods.

15 Feed Fayetteville s Farm to Preschool Program -An extension of Farm to School, a nationwide program that integrates nutrition and garden activities into early education to influence eating habits and lifestyle choices of children -Some of the program components include sourcing local food in school snacks and meals, promoting and increasing access to local foods for families, offering nutrition and garden-based education through school gardening and in-class food preparation, field trips to farms, farmers markets, and community gardens, and parent workshops

16 How Feed Fayetteville is involved with Farm to School -Feed Fayetteville works with the Ivory M Conley and Fayetteville Centers of EOA Washington County Head Start to help maintain school gardens at both locations -The programs serve approximately 75 low-income children -Provides weekly or bi-weekly garden activities including planting, watering, composting, harvesting, cooking, and tasting -Strives to involve parents by sending materials and produce home and inviting parents to help with garden maintenance in an effort to change eating habits at home

17 Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition -Alliance of partners, gardens, and friends working to develop network gardens that provide locally grown food to community members -Mission is to facilitate the development and growth of sustainable community gardens in Fayetteville that build community and produce fresh, high-quality food for all -Resource for finding, starting or getting involved with a garden in your neighborhood -Map online to find a community garden in your area -For community gardens in Fayetteville, check out the City of Fayetteville s Garden in the Parks site link

18 -Food drives to provide protein -Items distributed to local food pantries and community meal kitchens -Shelf-stable proteins like canned tuna or chicken, beans, nuts, and nut butters -Items can include fresh produce grown in your garden, grocery store items, or items from the farmers market -Monetary donations also accepted -Can bring donations to Fayetteville s famers market every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday -Feed Fayetteville and local churches work together to preserve farm fresh produce for community meal programs to utilize during wintertime -A majority of the produce comes from the CareCropping partnership involving Seeds That Feed, which collects and distributes produce to those in need

19 Tri Cycle Farms -Tri Cycle Farms vision is to create an edible, sustainable urban farm park where we cherish and steward education, community, and soil. -Classes and Activities include: -Wild edible and medicinal herb walks -Canning and preserving the harvest -Introduction to permaculture -Cooking classes

20 How you can get involved and contacts NWA Food Bank-Marvin Post (479) Ext. 206, Apple Seeds- (479) , Tri Cycle Farms-Don Bennett (479) , to volunteer or for groups or tours, visit Fruit orchard at Yvonne Richardson Community Center in Fayetteville, (479) SNAP EBT benefits -for information on how to use SNAP resources at farmers markets, healthy cooking classes, or where SNAP is accepted at visit the Feed Communities website at Feed Fayetteville- (479)

21 Suggestions for future projects -Hosting a campus-wide food drive at NWACC to benefit the NWA Food Bank or donating protein items to be given to Feed Fayetteville as part of their Protein, Produce, and Pennies food drives -Working with an organization like Feed Fayetteville or Tri Cycle Farms to tend their gardens, help teach children how to garden, and emphasize the importance of fresh, nutritious food -Getting healthier food options at NWACC-more fresh produce, etc. -A campus food pantry to provide fresh produce and canned goods for NWACC students who qualify (similar to University of Arkansas Full Circle Food Pantry) -Volunteering with any of the organizations mentioned

22 Methodology We researched various projects to get involved with and eventually decided upon NWA Food Bank. We spent a couple of hours volunteering in their warehouse unpacking and sorting donations. Additional time was spent researching current projects working to alleviate hunger in our communities. A project manager was appointed to organize the paper and powerpoint presentation.

23 Technologies Used Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel (paper, presentation, and pie charts) Cell phones and (communication) Internet (for information and pictures) We used circle graphs to demonstrate percentages of the population affected by food insecurity. Each percent was multiplied by the total 360 degrees in a circle to determine the angle.

24 Acknowledgements We would like to thank Marvin Post, the volunteer coordinator for NWA Food Bank, for providing some of the statistics and ways to get involved Edible Ozarkansas, a member of Edible Communities Publications, for their information on current projects and pictures Feed Fayetteville s website for information and pictures NWA Food Bank s website for their statistics and pictures