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Report: Group Works to Alleviate Arkansas Food Deserts

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Thursday, December 29, 2022   

A recent report shows Arkansas has a "food desert" issue in urban and rural communities.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson formed the Arkansas Gov.'s Food Desert Working Group, which issued a report recommending steps to alleviate food insecurities in Arkansas.

Kathy Webb, CEO of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, who serves as co-chair of the 18-member working group, said the food-deserts issue has been exacerbated over the last few years with a number of national grocery store closures, leaving some communities without access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

She added the group's original thought was recommendations would center on legislative changes, but what they found is change is centered on community action, with the Legislature playing a role through connections and better policy.

"We talked to people all over the country and got ideas for ways to make change," Webb recounted. "And in my opinion, it begins at the community level with community leaders, local elected officials as well as legislative."

The working group recommended adding support for food access into state fiscal policy, by setting up local and state tax incentives, creating a revolving loan program, and providing grant funds for pilot programs in areas with low-to-no access to fresh foods.

She noted the working group traveled to neighboring states Mississippi and Tennessee to look at different models and studying how some of them could be adapted to fit needs in Arkansas. She emphasized a key finding of the report was more than 82% of Arkansas counties have one or more communities in need of improved access to food.

"It is 62 of 75 counties, and in some of these areas, a brick-and-mortar grocery store is probably not going to be the solution," Webb acknowledged. "But there are other solutions. And it's making all of the different possibilities available to people in the community."

She also pointed out another recommendation in the report is for the Legislature to improve state food benefit programs for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Women, Infants and Children program, to make it easier to access it virtually.

"Some of that involves work at the federal level," Webb stressed. "You currently cannot use WIC for online. To purchase things online, we'd like to see that change. We'd like to see more, smaller retailers be able to accept SNAP benefits online."

Webb recalled the group met with retailers virtually in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, who accept SNAP for online purchases, which is making a real difference in their rural communities.

She added the Arkansas Gov.'s Food Desert Working Group will be starting focus groups in January and community surveys to see what the community is going to respond to, and then match the needs with the potential solutions.


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