“The Arkansas Food Bank had “WE ARE A LARGE LOGISTICAL SUPPLY-CHAIN


OPERATION, AND OUR MAJOR CUSTOMERS ARE THE PANTRIES THAT DEAL WITH THE ACTUAL PEOPLE IN NEED.”


—KIM AARON, PRESIDENT, ARKANSAS RICE DEPOT


called us about hauling a load out of Ohio back to Arkansas. Garland, my son told me a food bank in Little Rock wanted us to haul a load back to Arkansas, and I said, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ And when my son asked, ‘For what kind of rate?’ I said, ‘Don’t charge ‘em.’” Rice started getting more calls, and


he started working with the food bank more and more, helping them get their freight back to Arkansas, donating the whole load or only charging for fuel. When the Arkansas Hunger Alliance was formed in 2004, he was asked to be a board member, and he’s been serving since then.


like the Arkansas Rice Depot and the Arkansas Food Bank have been around for over 30 years, trying to solve the logistical dilemma of how to provide access to nutritional food to hungry Arkansans.


FOOD BANKS VS. PANTRIES You may be asking yourself what do


food banks have to do with trucking? Food banks are often confused with food pantries, soup kitchens and other organizations that feed the hungry. Pantries are agencies that provide food to people directly. Food banks, on the other hand, provide the warehouses and distribution operations to the agencies. Food banks are logistical nonprofit busi- nesses—distribution facilities for food that has been donated or bought. The food banks solicit, collect or purchase the food. Then workers or volunteers often repackage bulk quantities to dis- tribute across several smaller agencies. Aaron explains, “We are a large


logistical supply-chain operation, and our major customers are the pantries that deal with the actual people in need. The pantries come to us and tell us what they need, and we provide to them. We are unique in that most non- profits directly touch the people they’re serving: we don’t. It’s the pantry that directly touches the need.” Many of the pantries receive food


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from multiple food banks to keep their shelves full for the families who visit them. The other six food banks in the state, sister organizations to the Arkansas Rice Depot, are part of Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks that negotiates contracts for seri- ously reduced costs on national food brands. The Arkansas Feeding America food banks work under the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance to address the state’s hunger problem as well.


ARKANSAS HUNGER RELIEF ALLIANCE In 2004, six founding food banks


incorporated the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance to improve the existing charitable food distribution system. The Alliance helps coordinate the busi- ness efforts of its food bank members, because even though no one is getting rich from food banks, they are business- es—non-profit logistics businesses. Butch Rice, president and CEO of


Stallion Transport, serves as president elect on the board of directors for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, offer- ing his transportation expertise and sometimes his own trucks to the par- ticipating food banks that need to move food products all around the state. He started helping hunger relief efforts over a decade ago before the Alliance incor- porated.


LOGISTICS OF FEEDING ARKANSAS Feeding Arkansas isn’t an easy


task. “Logistically speaking, it’s a huge problem,” Rice explains. “Any time you work with a charity, you always want to look at the administrative costs. How much of my donation is going to the end user? 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.” Food banks don’t have the option


of charging more for their services when the transportation costs rise because they don’t charge for their ser- vices in the first place. The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) just reported that the average marginal cost per mile in 2013 was $1.68, an increase from the $1.63 in 2012, due in part to the ongoing driver shortage and the resulting wage increas- es by motor carriers. Because food banks run largely


on donations of food and funds, their operations are limited by the amount they receive of both. The primary task of getting food to the agencies can be interrupted by any number of circum- stances—low donation seasons (summer as opposed to holiday time), low funds for unexpected complications (a broken forklift) or a natural disaster (like the tornado that hit the state in April 2014).


ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2014


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