Mobile Food Pantry On Campus - The Arkanas Traveller

Mobile Food Pantry On Campus - The Arkanas Traveller

The Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Mobile Food Pantry is a student-led program that came to fruition about five weeks ago and is designed to provide the pantry’s services to clients who cannot make it to the campus pantry during its normal hours of operation.

“We wanted to feed the need for food in a way that wasn’t so inconvenient,” said Nick Stauffer, Volunteer Action Center president.

After filling out a first-time questionnaire, which can be found on the food pantry’s website, new clients can fill out a food request form for one of the designated locations. Orders can be placed online until 11:59 p.m. the day before delivery. Deliveries will only occur at the locations for which a food request has been placed.

As of Oct. 25, the MFP has made 15 deliveries, but its overall effect on families is undetermined.

“We’re still trying to diagnose its impact since it’s so recently been implemented,” Stauffer said. “It’s still so new.”

Clients are asked to not utilize Full Circle more often than every three days. Food pantry clients may be any person with a valid UA ID.

The UA campus has a 38 percent food insecurity rate, according to the Community Center for Engagement. The CCE conducts research based on surveys and the data that is taken in at the pantry.

“The addition of the MFP has allowed much more access to food for UA affiliates around the city of Fayetteville, rather than only serving the core campus,” said Caroline Horita, food pantry chairwoman.

The MFP delivers on Tuesdays and Fridays except during school breaks. Each location has a designated drop off time, although the route may vary depending on the orders received.

Tuesday locations include the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Center from 11:15-11:35 a.m., the Crop Science Center from 11:40 a.m. to noon  and UA Uptown Campus from 12:15 – 12:35 p.m. Friday locations include UAMS Northwest from 11:10 – 11:30 a.m., UA Global Campus from 11:35 – 11:55 a.m. and the Arkansas Research and Technology Park from 12:05 – 12:25 p.m.

“Some locations have a designated food-holding area that allows clients to pick up their food at their convenience,” said Alex De La O, mobile food pantry coordinator. “At other locations, clients meet us at our van when we arrive and collect their food.”

The food allocated to the MFP from the campus pantry is dependent upon the MFP’s orders. The contents of the three-day supply of food given to people are determined by how many family members they have living in their households and their item preferences. Client information is recorded through an online order form on the food pantry’s website.

Volunteers and VAC board members have built the MFP from an idea to a program.

The MFP idea initially came after a pantry board visit to the University of Missouri. Its university pantry utilized a van that aided in the pickup and delivery of food. Before this visit and MFP idea, the UA pantry had to rent a van each time a pickup or delivery was needed.

The idea for purchasing the van was established by Matthew Watters, the 2014-15 food pantry chairman.

Gaby Dominguez, The 2015-16 food pantry chairwoman, and intern, Georgia Poole, moved forward with the idea and created the mobile pantry program with assistance from the food program director, Claire Allison.

“The mobile pantry has had many people involved in its development throughout the past few years to finally bring the idea to fruition this semester,” Horita said.

The MFP uses some funds from the Tyson grant of $250,000 that was awarded in October 2014 and The Walmart Foundation under their Northwest Arkansas Community Grant Program. Both Tyson and Walmart have given grants to Full Circle. Besides the van purchase, the grant money is also utilized in other areas of Full Circle.

The grant money goes to things such as food, the van’s maintenance and fuel, the Cooking Matters program, the garden, the construction of the new garden and to any projects like holiday and spring cleaning baskets that are done throughout the year, De La O said.