LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance has been fighting food insecurity for almost two decades, but on Wednesday, they zeroed in on college students facing food insecurity.
The Hunger Relief Alliance hosted a college hunger summit for the second consecutive year to ensure state colleges have the resources to solve the food insecurity problem.
"A lot of people are surprised to learn, or to think, that students face food insecurity," Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance Communications Manager Jessica Crenshaw said.
25 schools from across the state made their way to Little Rock to share how they're making sure students have access to food, and a lot of them do this by having food pantries.
"We keep basic things like milk and eggs and bread," University of Central Arkansas Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Wendy Holbrook said. "Some of our students come every week."
UCA's pantry has been in place since 2014, and they saw more students than ever stopping by this year.
"The first 30 days of school this year, we saw 404 individual students," Holbrook said. "We distributed over 7,000 pounds of food."
Holbrook said having the food pantry is vital as the number of students utilizing the resource has almost doubled since August 2022.
"We want them to be successful in food insecurity," Holbrook said. "[It] should not get in the way of your academic dreams."
And it's just as crucial for schools in more rural areas like Batesville.
"We had a lot of students who were on campus maybe all day long and didn't have the funds to go to the grill or a vending machine," University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville Receptionist Tammy Smith said.
Smith orders the food for the pantry and makes sure it's stocked.
"We have increased our ordering to twice a month now," Smith said. "Sometimes it's hard to keep the shelves stocked."
Their pantry started in 2019. Although they haven't been around for as long as some of the others, they're glad they can keep growing.
"We're hoping that if we can get some grant money, we'll be able to get a fridge for our pantry," Smith said. "That's something that we don't have right now. We have limited space."
The Hunger Alliance hopes it will be easier for each school to provide services and have some extra help after the summit.
"This is an opportunity for them to connect with other schools and to apply for grant programs," Crenshaw said.