The Food Bank of North Central Arkansas, headquartered in Mountain Home, has been providing a monthly Mobile Food Pantry to Newton County since 2023. The Food Bank’s mobile food pantry is held every third Wednesday. It has been conducted at the Jasper School in the car loading parking lot between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and is open to all Newton County residents in need of food assistance. Individuals are asked to bring a state issued ID or a current utility bill with their name and address.
The location will be changing, according to Jasper Mayor Michael Thomas. He made the announcement during Thursday night's city council meeting.
He noted that for some time the number of people coming to the school for food assistance has been steadily growing and that the resulting traffic has been causing some problems for the neighborhood along Clark street and for the school.
After some consideration, Thomas said he notified the mobile pantry's director, Jeff Quick, about the need to relocate. It was decided to move the distribution location to Bradley Park. He said the location offered the picnic pavilion for the volunteer staff to get out of the elements and there are restroom facilities available. The long looping driveway through the park should be able to accommodate the number of vehicles driving through to pick up groceries. This should ease congestion on the school's parking lot and driveway and along Clark Street that has been blocking residents' driveways during the pantry's hours.
Food is available to individuals in need through the USDA Temporary Food Assistance Program (commonly referred to as commodities), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (commonly referred to as the Sr. Food Box Program), and through the Food Bank’s Emergency Food Box program. The first two of these programs have age and income guidelines that are associated with participation in the program, the Food Bank’s Emergency Food Box program does not require an age or income guideline to qualify.
