Arkansas Foodbank

About 5,400 people volunteered last year to help the Arkansas Foodbank provide food and other resources to about 280,000 people across the state, said Rhonda Sanders, who has been CEO of the nonprofit for nearly two years.

The volunteers worked more than 15,000 hours in the 33 central and south Arkansas counties served by the food bank. “It is awesome to have that many people come and volunteer,” she said.

Through local and national partnerships, the Arkansas Foodbank, founded in 1984, acquires and distributes large quantities of food to 300 food pantries, shelters, schools and soup kitchens in its service area. While the central office is in Little Rock, the Arkansas Foodbank has an office in Caddo Valley (Clark County) and another in Warren (Bradley County).

“There are approximately 20 percent of the people in our state who are hungry,” Sanders said, and of those, 25 percent are children and 24 percent senior citizens.

“Hunger affects everything,” Sanders said. “Children can’t learn; people don’t work well. … Research shows that people who don’t have a well-balanced diet, who are hungry, have more health issues. It really is one of the major building blocks for leading a family to self-sustainability, so they can learn, so they can be part of the economic engine … and do all those things.”

The Arkansas Foodbank, which has 49 full-time employees, had a 20 percent increase in revenue through donations in 2013. About 50 percent of all funding comes from donations and gifts, with just 8 percent coming from government sources, Sanders said.

The nonprofit’s goal is to provide 26 million pounds in its service area by 2016. About 18 million pounds of food were distributed in 2013 and about 22 million pounds in 2014.

Previous Honorees