Charitable Logistics The distribution operations of Arkansas charity


By Bethany May Managing Editor


Walking to the warehouse of the


Arkansas Rice Depot, you pass rooms of metal folding chairs and long tables with volunteers filling little plastic bags with small portions of dry rice kernels. The Depot relies on these rooms with volunteers, around 8,000 helpers a year, to accomplish their goals of feeding food insecure Arkansans. Every year, the United States


Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) reports on the state of food insecurity in the United States. Like years past, Arkansas earns the very the top (or bottom, unfortunately) spot of the U.S. state rankings. So what is food security? The USDA describes the spectrum from high food security (access to enough food for an active healthy life for all household members) to very low food security (indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake due to food access problems). The U.S. food insecurity average is 14.3 percent, and Arkansas’ prevalence of insecurity is 21.2 percent. Kim Aaron, the president of the


Arkansas Rice Depot explains, “Hunger is an emotion. Food insecurity is more a description of someone’s life . . . . It means these [Arkansans] don’t have food today, and [they] don’t know where the next meal is coming from.” The kind of chronic hunger that


comes with food insecurity is not a new problem for the state. So many rural counties with high poverty rates make these numbers unsurprising, familiar even. However, big food banks


ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2014


“WHEN YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT FEEDING


HUNGER, IT IS SO INTENSE. TRANSPORTATION IS EXPENSIVE, AND THAT’S WHY I HELP, BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT A STRUGGLE IT IS.”


—BUTCH RICE,


CEO OF STALLION TRANSPORTATION AND PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE ARKANSAS HUNGER RELIEF ALLIANCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS


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