It is well documented that breakfast has an important positive impact on student academic achievement, health and well-being. Although all Arkansas schools provide a school breakfast program, many of our neediest students are not starting the school day with breakfast. So what are we doing to help increase the number of students who are eating school breakfast?

Upon choosing to dedicate my first year out of college to serving on the Cooking Matters team at the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, I had some vague expectations about what I would be doing. I expected to mostly teach cooking classes with low income individuals.

The Arkansas legislative process follows a simple rule: Effective policy is better than ineffective innovation. Government time and money must be used effectively.Yet some bills filed during the 2017 legislative session seem to have forgotten this rule.

by Alex Handfinger, Cooking Matters at the Store field manager It’s no secret that Arkansas consistently struggles as one of the states with the highest rates of both food insecurity and obesity in the nation. Currently, approximately one out of every five kids in our...

By Christy Felling Director of Strategic CommunicationsDecember 7, 2016   Melcher: “Congress missed the opportunity to end summer hunger for millions of kids in need.” 12/07/16, Washington, D.C. – Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee on...

By Tomiko Townley, Older Adult & SNAP Outreach Manager Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps Arkansas families put food on the table, but we know now that it accomplishes much more than that. Research increasingly...

by John Cook, PhD, M.A.Ed October 27, 2016 A family sits around a table enjoying dinner. There is enough food tonight so that everyone in the household will go to bed well-fed, but the mother lies awake wondering how she will afford next week’s groceries. This...

Since the Arkansas No Kid Hungry campaign began in 2010, increasing school breakfast participation has been a key focus. The benefits to students of getting a nutritious breakfast are many and well documented*. Hungry children can't learn, and so they begin falling...

Bridget here for the last time. The final day of the challenge came as a relief to me. I was so sick of eating the same two or three dishes over and over, and I missed restaurant food dearly. I had an egg on a piece of toast for breakfast, and some grape-nuts in...

Hello again, Bridget here. For lunch today, I had leftover taco salad from the night before, and thankfully I wasn’t as hungry by the end of the workday as I was yesterday.  My dinner was a tuna salad sandwich and bell pepper strips with fat free ranch dressing....

Programs [shortmenu menu="Programs" enhance="false" is_responsive="true" ] Get Involved [shortmenu menu="Get Involved" enhance="false" is_responsive="true" ] Giving Bridget here with reflections on the third day of the SNAP challenge. I’m worn down mentally and...

“Lunch today was extremely unsatisfying – yogurt with honey and Grape-Nuts. By the time I left work, I was starving and felt light-headed.”