The Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry turned 10 on Feb. 7! The Pantry started in 2011to serve members of the campus community experiencing food insecurity. In the past decade the staff and volunteers in the Pantry have helped thousands of people in need, and become a model for what other universities can accomplish with an on-campus food pantry.
Full Circle has made a huge difference in the campus community over the past decade. Since the 2014 launch of GivePulse, a service tracking system managed through the Center for Community Engagement, Full Circle has engaged 838 volunteers, amassing 15,500 total service hours!
Since implementing a more robust data tracking system in October of 2017, tracking the numbers of those served, 29,129 members of the U of A and UAMS-NW community have been served through various programs.
The first week Full Circle opened the Pantry served 12 community members. Now Full Circle is serving upwards of 800 community members every single month! The pantry, which started as shelves stocked with food, has grown to having a garden, composting, partnering with local organizations, creating accessible cooking classes, and, most recently, a locker system to increase opportunities for community members in need to receive assistance.
To celebrate the great accomplishments, a group of students are putting together a yearlong celebration. From food drives, to providing clients with cake making supplies, virtual events and more. Be sure to like Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry on Facebook and follow the VAC on Instagram at @UAVAC to stay up-to-date on all of the events.
Pantry Awarded $100K Grant From The Walmart Foundation
The Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to provide program expansion for the pantry and its sister program, Razorback Food Recovery.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, these food programs have become increasingly important in serving the campus and Northwest Arkansas communities and will now have the opportunity to expand their offerings.
Charles Robinson, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, said, “I am very proud of the staff and students who continue to expand upon the efforts to address food insecurity for our campus and local community. I am also very grateful to the Walmart Foundation for its generosity. Now, we will be able to better facilitate the Center of Community Engagement’s mission of empowering students to become engaged citizens through service, experiential learning and practicing social value.”
“This grant is especially exciting, because it will increase our capacity to grow,” said Sage McCoy, food programs coordinator for the Center for Community Engagement. “Our staff is small but mighty, and our students’ dreams for our programs are even mightier.”
The Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry is a student-led emergency food assistance program, striving to serve clients with balanced meals through non-perishables and fresh produce from its own garden. Full Circle serves anyone with an ID from the U of A or the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and their households: students, staff, faculty and temporary or hourly employees.
Thanks to the grant from Walmart Foundation, the Full Circle Food Pantry will be able to expand its SNAP education, outreach and assistance, as well as increase equitable access to its resources for the campus and regional communities.
Razorback Food Recovery is a student-led, sustainability-focused food waste reduction program that recovers prepared, unserved food from on-campus sources and redistributes the food to local agencies around the Fayetteville area.
Since it was established in 2014, the program has recovered and redistributed more than 250,000 pounds of food. With this new grant funding, the program will be able to expand its efforts by building a successful relationship with the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and a neighborhood market; creating volunteer opportunities and student leadership roles to manage the pick-up, sorting and distribution of goods; and improving access to nutritious foods.
“This funding will allow us to bring in four AmeriCorps VISTAs, who will give us the time and space to really dive deep into the potential of our programs,” McCoy said. “We will be able to increase accessibility to the services we currently offer while expanding and reimagining ways to get assistance to current and potential clients. Bringing new team members dedicated to a year of capacity building will allow us to explore, create and innovate, while keeping in mind our missions of combating food insecurity and decreasing food waste.”
About Philanthropy at Walmart: Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. By focusing where the business has unique strengths, Walmart.org works to tackle key social and environmental issues and collaborate with others to spark long-lasting systemic change. Walmart has stores in 26 countries, employs more than 2.2 million associates and does business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. Walmart.org is helping people live better by supporting programs to accelerate upward job mobility for frontline workers, advance equity, address hunger, build inclusive economic opportunity for people in supply chains, protect and restore nature, reduce waste and emissions, and build strong communities where Walmart operates. To learn more, visit walmart.org or connect on Twitter @Walmartorg.
A version of this information also appeared in Arkansas Newswire.