By: Carsyn Cann
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.- The Walmart Foundation awarded the Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry $100,000 to help provide for expansion of the pantry and its sister program, Razorback Food Recovery.
Both the Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry and Razorback Food Recovery are student run programs. Sage McCoy, the food program coordinator for the Center of Community Engagement at the University of Arkansas, says that it can be hard for students to balance school and their role in these programs. “Between balancing their leadership positions with academics, work, and other commitments, we do not always have the capacity to pursue bigger picture program expansions…,” said McCoy.
McCoy said that this grant will help bring new members to their staff to help build capacity with their various programs. New members will be able to help Razorback Food Recovery expand from only recovering food from on-campus dining halls to redistribute to also recovering food from grocery stores.
The grant will also help expand accessibility to pantry services through new mobile pantry and drop-off sites, along with the growth of their Cooking Matters programming and SNAP assistance capabilities.
Within the last year, the Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry served over 4,000 University of Arkansas community members. McCoy says she is excited to see how this grant will help the community. “[There is] so much exciting growth that will positively impact our capacity to serve our University of Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas communities,” said McCoy.