River Valley Food 4 Kids fills summer needs
RUSSELLVILLE — For parents who rely on school meals for their children, summertime can become “very desperate for the families,” said Kristin Foster, executive director of River Valley Food 4 Kids in Russellville.
That’s why Foster helped create the nonprofit organization in 2014. Each week, the families of students in Russellville, Dover and Dardanelle can pick up a week’s worth of food.
“We offer them cereal, peanut butter, soup, mac and cheese, snacks; we get chicken from Tyson, and they get fresh produce every week,” Foster said.
The reason River Valley Food 4 Kids doesn’t offer a hot meal, Foster said, is that studies show only about 15 percent of children who are eligible for those programs can attend every day. She said a higher percentage of children are reached by providing food to the families to prepare.
This summer, the fourth for the program, more than 1,000 children are signed up for food. When the program started, it served a few hundred, Foster said.
“It’s a big impact for our community. We have a high rate of food insecurity in Pope County — over one in four kids [is food insecure],” she said. “We hear from a lot of parents and grandparents how important this is.”
Volunteer A. J. Walsh of Russellville, a retired police officer, has worked with the feeding program three of the four summers it has been offered. He’s seen the number of program participants grow from 400 to about 1,300, he said.
“Last year, we had about 1,300 kids signed up in the summer,” he said.
“There’s never a time when everybody shows up,” Foster said.
About 1,000 kids are typically represented each week, Foster said.
Walsh said the children who come look, act and dress just like his five grandchildren, “so it strikes home that there are things going on in their lives that we can’t see.”
He said he gets great satisfaction from helping those children and families.
“Let me tell you how it makes you feel — No. 1, the cop side of me likes to look at research and look at the facts — 3,200-plus kids in 2015 were food insecure in Pope County,” he said. “Kristen Foster and Food 4 Kids fed about 1,200 of those 3,200 and got them off the food-insecurity list. That’s really significant. This is way beyond taking a box of macaroni and cheese to the church food pantry.”
In 2015, River Valley Food 4 Kids started a backpack program at Russellville, Atkins, Pottsville and Dover schools to send food home with kids during the school year.
On May 30, River Valley Food 4 Kids had a grand opening at the organization’s new warehouse at 407 N. El Paso St. Previously, the organization used donated space in the Russellville School District at the secondary learning center. However, the district’s child-nutrition program needed to utilize that space.
“We were already kind of tight in the space, anyway,” Foster said. “They’ve been very gracious and very generous with us, but they just didn’t have any space to put us.”
The pickup locations and times are 9-11 a.m. and 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays in Russellville, 407 N. El Paso St.; 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays at Dardanelle Elementary School; and 11 a.m. to noon Mondays at Dover Elementary School. Also, in Dover, the school district is providing a free meal at the same time. The program goes through Aug. 8.
Foster said River Valley Food 4 Kids is partnering
with Arkansas Tech University students to provide life-skills training for the parents at the food giveaway.
“We’re really kind of excited to add that,” she said.
The classes, which are required, include topics such as budgeting for groceries, healthy eating and interview skills.
Different activities are offered each week for children, too, including yoga and healthy eating. In the past, a doctor has done some wellness checks. The goal is to get children to think about being healthier, Foster said.
Eating well and education go together, she said.
“If they spend the whole summer stressed out and not eating enough, they’re not prepared to go back to school,” Foster said.
To sign up for the summer food program, go to the website rivervalleyfood4kids.org or call Foster at (479) 223-1544.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 3270370 or tkeith@arkansas online.com.