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Arkansas takes steps to fight food insecurity

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has announced funding to address food insecurity in the state.  Four organizations will receive up to $10,000 as part of an inaugural “food desert elimination grant”. 

Funding was awarded to Innovative Community Concepts, the McElroy House in Yell County and the city of Pine Bluff, and the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture in Jefferson County.

Sanders says the grants are a good first step in addressing food insecurity and combating food deserts.

Food deserts are geographic areas where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious, and plentiful food. Arkansas’s food insecurity rate is 16.6 percent, well above the national average of 11.2 percent. Every county in the state has at least one food desert. 

The grant was developed with the Department of Health and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission.