Extension Corner: Collaboration fighting hunger in North Little Rock

LITTLE ROCK — The Cooperative Extension Service is working to ensure families in the Little Rock School District not only have enough to eat — but that they also have access to fresh produce they might otherwise skip.
“The last thing anyone needs to worry about is where their next meal is coming from,” said Chris Wyman, executive director of Potluck Food Rescue, a nonprofit organization that works to fight food insecurity by redirecting food from going to waste.
As part of a new partnership, Potluck recently collaborated with Pulaski County Extension and the Little Rock School District to distribute food at no cost to families during after school pick-up at Western Hills Elementary School. Wyman said hosting No Cost Markets at schools is an important way of meeting families’ needs.
“We’ve been doing No Cost Markets for the last five years, and we want to do them at schools that we know have a need for it,” Wyman said.
Laura Anne Warren, Pulaski County Extension family and consumer sciences agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, has taught extension nutrition programming at Western Hills Elementary for the last 14 years. She said this new collaboration with Potluck Food Rescue and the Little Rock School District reflects the Cooperative Extension Service’s mission to strengthen Arkansas communities and families.
“Western Hills is a 92 percent free- or reduced-lunch population school,” Warren said. “With increased economic pressures, parents are struggling to provide healthy food options for their families. Hosting a No Cost Market provides an additional avenue for low-income families to access fresh, healthy foods. This meets families where they are as they pick their students up from school.”
Teamwork in action
On April 28, Potluck Food Rescue staff, Warren and Western Hills Elementary staff distributed 1,445 pounds of food to families in less than half an hour as they passed through the pick-up line. The food included fresh pineapples, oranges and nectarines, lettuce, leeks, raspberries and strawberries. Saltine crackers, cereal and spice packets were also part of the mix. Wyman said this No Cost Market sourced food from Sam’s Club in North Little Rock, Fresh Market, Ben E. Keith, Trader Joe’s and Edward’s Food Giant.
Wyman said the efficient teamwork involved in this food distribution was moving and inspiring.
“That’s community,” Wyman said. “People coming together to help — it wasn’t just putting a pile of food out, and then every person to themselves. That was, ‘Let’s make sure everybody gets some.’ To be there, to see it and be a part of it, that’s a measure of success that no one really knows until they’ve experienced it.”
Pamela Freeman, principal of Western Hills Elementary, said families responded positively to the No Cost Market. Western Hills Elementary is a Title I school, meaning it receives federal funds to support children from low-income families.
“Everybody was excited about it,” Freeman said. “Being a Title I school, we know that we serve students who are impoverished and who have food insecurity. It’s great for our students to have the opportunity to experience nutritious and healthy foods. A lot of times, when people go to the grocery store, the cheapest stuff to buy is typically processed food, so this program gives our students the opportunity to try different foods.

“Hopefully, by trying a new food, it might be something that they like, and the next time they go to the store, they might ask their parents for that again, if it’s affordable,” she said. “The No Cost Market gives families the opportunity to cook nutritious food at home.”
Extension nutrition education
Warren said hosting the No Cost Market at Western Hills Elementary is a natural progression of the nutrition education programming that Pulaski County Extension has provided at the school for decades.
“Closing the fresh food access gap and helping neighbors understand the importance of healthy food choices has been my mission during my time as an extension employee,” Warren said. “An extension nutrition program has been hosted at Western Hills Elementary in some form for more than 20 years. It has been my honor to serve in this role, which has been both personally and professionally fulfilling.”
Part of Warren’s programming includes a school garden on the campus, where each classroom tends to a designated raised bed. Freeman said Warren is an “amazing part of our learning community.”
“It’s like she’s a part of our staff,” Freeman said. “When we do potlucks, she participates, and when we do staff appreciation, she’s a part of that. Everyone calls her the Garden Lady. She’s so great with the kids and really commits a lot of her time to building relationships with the students.
“When she’s teaching her lessons or working in the garden, the kids really respond to her,” Freeman said. “She’s passionate about what she does, and that filters over into the kids and their excitement for gardening and new foods.”
Food for the future
Warren said the Little Rock School District plans to bring the No Cost Market to other low-income schools in the district. Wyman said that in the future, he can see the partnership “blossoming into something that provides a lot of education that’s more widely spread than I can do at my level.”
“Extension is everywhere that we, as Potluck, want to be,” Wyman said. “In every county, with education available in every county.”
At future markets, Warren said she hopes to prepare educational signage to display, as well as a QR code link to how-to videos, which she said would be “a great way to reach busy families.”
“It would be amazing if I could lead a food demonstration at a parents’ event, showing the preparation of foods offered by the No Cost Market,” Warren said. “It’s my belief that perceived barriers are just as powerful as actual barriers, in the mindset of ‘If I don’t know how to do something, I am not going to try.’ Direct information presented in an upbeat manner will help change this barrier of ‘I can’t’ to ‘I will try.’”