Students from across the state in the Arkansas Future Farmers of America program donned hairnets and protective gloves Wednesday as they spent part of their summer leadership conference at Camp Couchdale packaging 30,000 meals.
Through a partnership with Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, more than 80 FFA members worked furiously for nearly three hours Wednesday morning on the "Fearless Food Fight."
A well-organized assembly line and a miniature dance party kept students on their toes as they successfully packaged 30,000 meals that will later be distributed to the Blytheville Food Pantry, the Missionary Bible Church in Stamps and Gurdon Food Bank.
"They're packing meals for people in Arkansas. Part of our motto is 'living to serve,' so we are enforcing that motto and serving some of the communities in our state," FFA president Dawsyn Smith said.
"This is our biggest service project but there are three more. We have some people helping out a local high school garden, we have some people landscaping a local training center, and we have a group of FFA service members at the Boys & Girls Club in Malvern," Smith said.
The meals they packaged are ones that can easily be prepared on a stove top. The packages included a rice-based meal, cheese, and a vitamin pack to add to the food.
According to Rebecca Pittillo, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield's regional executive for south Arkansas, one in five Arkansans struggle with deep hunger and the state ranks number two in the number of residences who are food insecure.
"We're working with FFA, just like we will with lots of other community organizations and businesses to fight hunger in their area," Pittillo said.
Pittillo said the hunger crisis Arkansas faces spans from children to seniors. More than 240,000 Arkansans over the age of 60 are food insecure.
"For almost seven decades, Blue Cross has offered reliable and affordable health insurance to hopefully give people a peace of mind when it comes to their health and those 'what if?' situations that happen in life. Now, we're looking at other ways to make Arkansas healthy and hunger and food insecurity are a major problem within our state," Pittillo said.
Blue Cross has pledged to provide 700,000 meals to Arkansans across the state in 2018 as a way to celebrate its 70th year in operations. Pittillo said they are making a concerted effort to work with others in the state who are also committed to helping people gain access to nutritious foods.
Local on 06/21/2018