Rotary Club hopes mini-food pantries become community project
Combating food insecurity is a constant battle. According to the organization Feeding America, one-infive children and one-in-six people face hunger in Arkansas, 467,550 people.
A number of food pantries and other programs in Union County lend their efforts towards fighting those numbers, including the Rotary Club of El Dorado.
Last summer, the El Dorado Rotary Club and Murphy USA teamed up to install a new, small-scale food pantry in El Dorado and unveiled the project on Saturday outside the Hillsboro Street Church of Christ. A second pantry is located near the South Arkansas Regional Hospital on 5th Street.
The project originated from a food insecurity roundtable organized by the Rotary Club and held in January 2023. This roundtable resulted in a partnership between the club, Murphy USA and Engage Arkansas.
Newspaper kiosks, which were donated by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via Engage Arkansas, made their way to the South Arkansas Arts Center and were painted and decorated by students there. Murphy USA employees helped out with maintenance on the kiosks and El Dorado Public Works employees helped out by installing the kiosks.
The placement of the pantries was strategic, according to Rotary Club member Tyler Turner.
“We wanted them visible but not so public that it’s a barrier to people taking from it. Safety was a concern as well,” Turner said.
Because they are located outdoors and unlocked, the pantries are “always here and always open,” Turner said, and people are free to donate and to take what they need from them.
Rotary Club members help to make sure the kiosks are continually stocked, particularly the one on 5th Street, but hope to eventually turn the stocking responsibilities to the community at large.
“From here, the goal is for it to be a community project, for people who live in these neighborhoods to take it up to check them and to donate,” Turner said.
On Feb. 1, several Rotary Club members including Karen Hicks, Turner, Caroline Calloway and Michael O’ Connell visited the mini-pantry on 5th Street to stock it with items recently purchased thanks to a grant from Engage Arkansas.
The organization made $500 grants available to organizations taking part in the program, and the Rotary Club of El Dorado applied for and received one.
The pantries are best stocked with non-perishable food and easy-to-use ingredients, said Hicks, and hygienic and other useful household items are welcome too.
“You really never see [the pantries] full, so they definitely get used,” Hicks added.
Turner encouraged community members to take up the task of adding even small and inexpensive items to the pantry regularly.
“There’s definitely room for people to get involved. If you drive by one of these regularly, you can make it an every Tuesday thing. It takes about just 10 minutes to stop, and you can put in $5 worth of stuff — anything helps,” he said.
He added that churches, organizations and community groups are welcome to collaborate with the Rotary Club on the project.