PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Some people hope to be able to make a difference, but they know that making a difference in your community will be no easy task.
For Debra Allen of Pine Bluff, working to make a difference has become her new normal— and she can vividly see her end goal.
"Yes, I got the vision!" Allen said. "That ain't nothing but a warehouse to me, a miniature warehouse."
She's the newest resident of an old fire station on Pine Bluff's east side— but she's no firefighter.
Though she is, however, a fighter with a fire for her community.
"Because if we don't be concerned about our community having meals to eat every day, there's something wrong with us," Allen explained.
Allen has made a plan for what the building that she acquired on a 20-year lease for just $1 a year, could be.
"Where the beds were, that's where my deep freezer's gonna be," she added.
She's decided she will be creating a food pantry for a community that needs it.
"Super One closing, but when you go into Super One, you have to pay for your groceries," Allen said. "But I got the same groceries they have, and they are free."
Allen isn't the only one who has seen that there's a need for food in their community.
"I would describe food insecurity in Pine Bluff as an issue," Mayor Shirley Washington said. "A major concern."
Washington also added that those who have been living in her city sometimes just need a helping hand— With something like this pantry coming soon, it's a step towards being able to bridge the gap.
"We say we're one Pine Bluff, stronger together," Washington said. "The only way we can meet the needs of the citizens of the community is that we do work together."
Although it may take a while to get the old fire station exactly where it needs to be, that vision takes time.
No matter how long it takes, for Allen, it's all been all about being able to focus on her community.
"I don't need to be nowhere to where I got to be there and live in there," she said. "I just need a secure place for Jefferson County people where I can keep on giving them groceries."
Allen said that she hopes to be up and running by Thanksgiving so she can pass out turkeys and hams ahead of the holidays.