LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas Foodbank topped its distribution record for 2019. The organization recently announced it finished the year by distributing a record 29,509,708 pounds of food for 2019. That is 2 million pounds more than 2018.
“There are so many in need. There are so many that just lack those few extra meals each month and we want to close that gap,” CEO Rhonda Sanders said.
All of those donations equal about 24.5 million meals for the 280,000 Arkansans the Foodbank serves. While the Foodbank is proud to have exceeded the previous record, Sanders understands hunger still remains a prevalent issue in Arkansas.
“We never meet the need. According to Feeding America and the numbers they provide to us, to actually close what we call the meal gap, we would need to double our distribution to do that,” Sanders said.
While doubling the distribution is highly unlikely, the Foodbank is striving to beat the 2019 record in 2020.
