Kathy Webb

In her first term in the Arkansas Legislature, Kathy Webb co-founded the House Hunger Caucus, and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance provided the staff support for caucus meetings.

Webb’s appreciation for the alliance and its important role in helping to serve hungry Arkansans grew during her three terms in the state House, where she made history as the first woman to co-chair the Joint Budget Committee.

In 2012 Webb was named executive director of AHRA, the only statewide organization that oversees food banks, hunger relief agencies, volunteers and corporate partners to provide food, education and advocacy to Arkansas’ hungry.

“We have a lot of hungry people in the state,” Webb said. More than 710,000 are served annually through food banks in Arkansas, where “nearly 20 percent of the people at some point in the year do not know where their next meal is coming from,” she said.

As executive director, Webb said, her goals are to “raise awareness in the state about hunger and its causes and to position the alliance as the state expert in fighting hunger.”

Her greatest accomplishments, she said, include helping launch nutrition programs designed to teach people to cook healthier meals and shop for healthier foods, achieving the largest increase in summer meals served by any state. Also during her tenure, the percentage of school breakfast-eligible children who actually participate has risen to top 10 status nationally.

Other accomplishments include implementing a SNAP outreach program in Arkansas, launching a pilot program to provide beef to low-income Arkansans and pushing for an Ensure food pantry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for cancer patients.

Her ability to persuade people to work together for a common goal, along with not being afraid to try new things, are her biggest assets, Webb said.

“We have interest as a state in making sure our kids are educated to the best of their ability and that our people are healthy, and addressing hunger plays a big role in that,” she said.

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