“I have even known them (children) to come to my door and knock, ‘Ms. Henry can I have something to eat?’ That’s just how bad it is,” said Clometrice.  She continued, “I don’t turn them down because they are just children.”

Little do the children know, the working mother has trouble feeding her own five children.  Her youngest Kylee, 11, shares her mother’s generous outlook.

“You can’t be greedy about what you eat, because you have food that other people would really want,” said Kylee.

Arkansas has a higher percentage of people living one meal at a time than any other state.  The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance reports 1 in 4 children in the state are hungry.

The Henry family is part of the sickening statistic. When food gets low at home Clometrice turns to her church, Life Line Baptist.  To her, the church lives up to its name. 

“I’ve never been to anywhere where they have a really big heart, they have a really big heart here,” she said.

Cliffton Galyean retired and said he decided to get to work.  He’s been running the Life Line food pantry for nearly 15 years.  Now, he stares down a bare freezer.

“I don’t need it as much as I did, ‘cause there’s not a stitch of anything in it, “said Galyean.

Empty shelves at food pantries and freezers tell the sad story.  The Hunger Relief Alliance reports, demand for food banks is soaring, but less than 30 percent of those who get help from food banks receive benefits from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and formerly known as food stamps.

“Some people don’t because of pride, they don’t want to feel like they can’t make it on their own,” said Galyean.

The Director of the Growth and Development Clinic at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Dr. Patrick Casey said, “We believe that families who take advantage of these programs, there are benefits to their children that are measurable.”

He continued, “If malnutrition occurs in the first 3 years of life, it increases the chance that the brain may be injured and if the brain is injured it sets the child up with long-term developmental problems.”

He sees about 5 children a week that are underweight come into his clinic.  He said people do not use the programs because of the red tape.

“Sometimes the application process is problematic and the paperwork you have to bring,” said Casey.

He said when the Recession hit in 2008, food insecurity doubled in the state in one year. It hasn’t dropped since.

It’s a statistic Galyean feels on his shelves, Clometrice feels in her fridge, and young Kylee wants to help.

“I want other people to feel like I do everyday.  My mom helps out a lot and she really provides us with enough food so I feel like other people should feel the same way,” said Kylee.

To view this report click this link: 

http://www.katv.com/story/15084830/a-deeper-look-at-hunger-in-arkansas?redirected=true&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6053487

Empty Plates for Low-Income Seniors

By PAULA SPAN

There’s a long list of reasons that older people suffer malnutrition and weight loss, a geriatrician recently told a Senate subcommittee on health and aging: smell and taste diminishing with age, high rates of depression, medications that that suppress appetite or upset stomachs, disabilities that make it hard to shop and cook.

But at the same hearing, an official with Government Accountability Office pointed out another, perhaps more basic problem: poverty.

What a new G.A.O. report calls “food insecurity” remains stubbornly high among seniors with low incomes. In 2009, about 19 percent of households with a low-income person over age 60 faced this problem — meaning that the older adult was uncertain of having enough food or unable to acquire enough.

In elderly households below the poverty line, nearly a third suffer food insecurity, the G.A.O. found, and in 17 percent of them an older person had to eat less at some point in the past year because he or she simply couldn’t afford food.

The demand for help is growing, too. A great majority of local agencies on aging are receiving increased requests for home-delivered meals, and nearly half are experiencing greater need for congregate meals, like those served at senior centers, according to the G.A.O.

While the increased need appears to stem partly from the recession and its ongoing effects, the report attributes some of it to seniors staying in their homes longer instead of moving into assisted living or nursing homes, thus placing greater strains on meal delivery programs. Talk about the law of unintended consequences.

For nearly 40 years, the Older Americans Act has kept hunger among seniors from becoming an even worse problem. Its nutrition programs delivered meals to more than 880,000 homebound people in 2009, according to Kathy Greenlee, who leads the federal Administration on Aging and who testified at the Senate hearing. Another 1.7 million seniors received congregate meals, she said.

A sense of anxiety percolated through the hearing. The Older Americans Act is up for reauthorization, and it’s telling that several witnesses — as well as Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, who is chairman of the subcommittee — were careful to portray nutritional programs for the elderly in economic as well as ethical terms. They deserve their appropriations, various officials said, because poor nutrition inexorably leads to poor health, which leads to hospitals and nursing homes and other responses that cost taxpayers a lot more than Meals on Wheels.

The G.A.O. report calls for greater efficiency in nutrition programs: Some overlap or duplicate services, raising administrative costs, or frustrate recipients by requiring multiple applications to multiple programs. Given the agency’s prediction that the need for meals among the low-income elderly will continue to outpace the available programs, that’s an important caution.

But reducing nutrition programs available through the Older Americans Act is a scary prospect. Whether they’re delivered to the door or served in senior centers, these simple meals, hardly elaborate productions, constitute more than half the day’s food for most of the seniors who receive them.

http://www.walletpop.com/2011/06/28/food-stamps-for-fast-food-yum-say-restaurants/?ncid=webmail4 

http://www.5newsonline.com/news/kfsm-food-pantry-opens-on-ua-fayett-01172011,0,471456.story

To read about this amazing story click here http://www.swtimes.com/week-in-review/news/article_15750eee-6829-11e0-9a5b-001cc4c002e0.html

Arvest Bank presented a $6,674.66 check to the River Valley Regional Food Bank. The funds will be used to purchase Tuna to be distributed to the participating agencies.

Arvest to Raise 1 Million Meals to Feed Hungry

 Our 2011 Community Development Initiative

 We are excited to announce Arvest’s 2011 Community Development Initiative called “1 Million Meals” to fight hunger in the over 90 communities we serve.  During April and May, we will ask associates and customers to join us in providing the equivalent of one million meals to local hungry families. 

 Our Regional Partnerships:
-        River Valley Regional Food Bank
-        Backpack Programs:

• Community Services Clearinghouse
• Russellville Public Schools
• Mena Public Schools
• Paris Middle School
• Clarksville Primary School

Q: What is “1 Million Meals?”

A:  It is Arvest Bank’s 2011 community development initiative to fight local hunger in the over 90 communities we serve. We will be raising money and collecting non-perishable food donations throughout April and May.  Then, we will present the donations to local community organizations fighting hunger during the month of June in honor of Hunger Awareness Month.

 Q:  How do you know that you are providing one million meals?

A:  Regional food banks across our four states report they can provide, on average, five meals for one dollar. Based on this calculation, we have pledged to supply one million meals for our communities.

 Q:  Why did Arvest choose hunger?

A:  We chose hunger because it’s something that touches each of the 90 communities we serve:

• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 15 percent of American households, or more than 17 million people, didn’t have enough food to eat at some point in 2009. That’s the highest figure since the USDA began gathering data in the 1990s.
• Looking at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food insecurity list, the four states Arvest serves, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, rank among the top 11.  Food insecurity is defined as lacking consistent access to adequate amounts of nutritious food.

 Q:  How can I help Arvest fight local hunger?

A:  Arvest has pledged to raise the equivalent of one million meals during April and May through bank donations, in-branch fundraisers and canned food drives. Associates and customers can join us in fighting local hunger by:

• Purchasing a paper plate for $1 at our branch locations. Paper plate donations will support local food partners. Each plate purchased funds five meals.
• Dropping off canned food items at our branch locations. Food items will be delivered to local food partners for distribution.

 Other specific items needed for our Backpack program partners, include:

-        Individual cereal boxes
-        Pudding/jello cups
-        Individual juice boxes
-        Vienna sausages
-        Easy-open individual serving cans of spaghetti o’s, beefaroni, etc.
-        Breakfast bars
-        Raisins
-        Pop-tarts
-        Cheese/peanut butter and crackers
-        Fruit cups
-        Instant oatmeal
-        Granola bars
-        Slim jims
-        Individual servings of goldfish snack crakers
-        Fruit snacks

Arkansas FY 2010 Round Up