World Food Day Drive Nets 75,000 Pounds of Food For Hungry People in Northwest Arkansas

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Volunteers from the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank collect part of the 75,000 pounds of items collected from the drive.

FAYETTEVILLE – The second annual University of Arkansas food drive, which ended Oct. 16, collected 15,000 pounds of nonperishable food items in acknowledgement of World Food Day. The donations were matched by a gift of 60,000 pounds from the event’s lead sponsor, Tyson Foods Inc., for a total of 75,000 pounds of food to be given to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.

World Food Day is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness and understanding and to inform a year-around action to alleviate hunger. The University of Arkansas has been named as an official collection site for this year’s event. The collection of items at the Georgia game was held in conjunction with the third annual Southeastern Conference “Together We CAN Food Drive.”

Honorary spokespeople for this year’s food drive were University of Arkansas alumna and volunteer Jane Gearhart and softball coach Mike Larabee, who were featured on public service announcements being aired on campus and on local television stations. Many other volunteers on the campus and within the community helped make the food drive a success. The drive began Sept. 19 and ended Oct. 16.

The sponsors for this year’s food drive are: University of Arkansas, Tyson Foods, Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, University of Arkansas Global Campus, Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, Arkansas World Trade Center, city of Fayetteville, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, University of Arkansas department of intercollegiate athletics, University of Arkansas Bookstores, Marvin’s IGA, the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the University of Arkansas Applied Sustainability Center and the University of Arkansas Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

About the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank:

The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, formerly the Ozark Food Bank, works to feed hungry people in the communities of northwest Arkansas through partnerships with other nonprofit hunger relief organizations. The food bank distributes millions of pounds of food per year and, in recent years, has expanded to include all of Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties. The 2000 Census indicated that Benton and Washington counties are two of the top three counties in Arkansas with the highest percentage of people living below poverty levels. The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank is an affiliate of America’s Second Harvest and more than 150 agencies throughout northwest Arkansas. It provides 3,000 meals to children on weekends. The donation of 75,000 pounds of food will enable the food bank to provide 375,000 meals to hungry people in northwest Arkansas through the agencies it serves.

For more information about World Food Day, visit http://worldfooddayusa.org. To learn more about sustainability initiatives on the University of Arkansas campus, visit http://sustainability.uark.edu. And to learn more about Tyson Foods hunger-relief efforts, visit http://hungerrelief.tyson.com/.