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Institute for Community Health Innovation

Health, Hunger and Nutrition

We partner with schools, organizations, and individuals to promote access to nutritious food for all Arkansans.

Overview

Arkansas has the highest rate of food insecurity in the nation and has a food desert in every county in the state. Limited access to nutritious foods contributes to chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and mental health disorders. The burden of food insecurity disproportionately falls on low-income and historically marginalized communities and exacerbates health disparities.

Prioritizing efforts to address hunger and nutrition in Arkansas is vital for ensuring the health, well-being, and nutritional opportunities for all.

What We’re Doing

School Nutrition

We work with schools to implement nutrition changes to their food service programs with the goal of increasing access to healthy foods for children. We offer training to school nutrition staff, help create customized nutrition plans, and engage students and parents.

Community Food Systems

We work with community-based organizations to address food insecurity in Arkansas and find ways to make it easier to find affordable, healthy foods. Our efforts include:

  • Northwest Arkansas Food Insecurity Community of Practice: We’ve brought together a group of organizations and individuals who work together to cultivate new strategies to address recurring problems related to food insecurity in northwest Arkansas. The community of practice has identified key goals to improve health food access, including increased SNAP and WIC access and evolving food recovery and distribution models.
  • Double Your Dollars: We reimburse local farmers to allow SNAP, WIC and SFMNP participants to receive a dollar match for purchases of local produce. The program also includes efforts to provide nutrition education to underserved communities through cooking demonstrations and outreach at local farmers markets in English, Spanish and Marshallese.
  • Arkansas Community Health Corps: Through the AmeriCorps VISTA program, the Arkansas Community Health Corps builds capacity in nonprofit organizations to help bring individuals and communities out of poverty. The AmeriCorps VISTA Food Insecurity Initiative (FSI), housed within Arkansas Community Health Corps, places VISTA members in organizations working to address food insecurity among Arkansas’ most vulnerable and underserved populations.

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