“Making Plates Possible”

• The River Valley Regional Food Bank is a 501(c)3 charitable organization that collects, stores and distributes salvaged, donated, and purchased food to help fight hunger through nonprofit agencies.
•  The River Valley Regional Food Bank is one of 200 food banks nationwide that make up the Feeding America network. A food bank provides food at no cost or with a small handling fee to food pantries. The River Valley Regional Food Bank is the only food bank in the 8-county River Valley region.
• Feeding America is the largest domestic hunger relief organization, providing food banks with advocacy, food safety guidance, national food donor partnerships, and grants.
• The Food Bank’s 187 member agencies—food pantries, soup kitchens, youth programs, senior citizen centers — provide 100,000 food boxes and hot meals monthly to people in Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Yell, Scott and Polk counties.
• Arkansas has the nation’s second-highest rate of food-insecurity: 17.2%. In the 8-county area served by the Food Bank, one in six people, including one in four children, struggle to have regular access to enough nutritious food for a healthy lifestyle.
• One-fifth of America’s landfill volume consists of food waste. The Food Bank drives four trucks 270 miles a day to collect up to 60,000 pounds of salvaged food from grocers and distributors that won’t be sold due to flawed packaging, product overages or nearness to expiration.
• In 2018, the Food Bank distributed 9.3 million pounds of food to help the one-in-six people in the River Valley who lack access to enough nutritious food.
• The Food Bank provides food to its member agencies at no cost or with a handling fee of 2 to 19 cents per pound. This handling fee covers one-half of the Food Bank’s expenses to operate its vehicles, equipment, and 63,000-square-foot warehouse including four 40-foot walk-in freezers and refrigerators.
• Up to 15 partner agencies arrive daily at the Food Bank to collect dairy, fresh produce, frozen meat, dry goods, a variety of frozen goods, beverages and non-food items such as paper goods.
• The Food Bank purchases $400,000 of nonperishable food annually to ensure a one-stop-shop for the nonprofit organizations that depend on the Food Bank for nutritious food at no– or low-cost.
• One dollar donated to the Food Bank provides six meals in the fight against hunger. Food drives are also a great help to the Food Bank’s mission of meeting the needs of the food pantries.
  

Thank you for your support through volunteerism, advocacy, and financial and food donations.