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By: Mackenzie Branstad

As of 2025, the state of Arkansas is ranked number one for food insecurity and in past years Arkansas has consistently been ranked in the top five. 1 in 6 people in the Northwest Arkansas area are food insecure.

Thousands of people in Northwest Arkansas don’t know the next time they will have access to food. This uncertainty affects mental health as well as physical health. This includes children especially in Springdale. 

In Springdale Arkansas there are thousands of food insecure children and families. This directly affects children’s well being in the classroom and It is hard to focus on school when a student doesn’t know if they will eat after school. Springdale schools offer help to food insecure families when it comes to paying for lunch. 

A student in Springdale Arkansas might start their day hungry without breakfast first thing in the morning. They start the day distracted and stressed by hunger rather than school or other issues. By the time lunch rolls around the student is hungry but knows they have to make this meal last so they stash the remainder of lunch in their backpack. When the final school bell rings the uncertainty continues as the student might have minimal to no food for the rest of the day. This cycle then continues every day. This could be a neighbor or friend but as the food insecurity rates rise this lifestyle to this extreme or not is becoming more common.

So many of the children in Springdale schools are reliant on organizations and meal plans that help fund lunch at school which is why so many food pantries and other organizations are created to help them. 

31% of food-insecure young people especially children feel stressed or worried every day where 10% of food-secure students feel stressed or worried every day. The constant anxiety on students will hurt them in education and could inflict future mental health conditions. Constant worry at a young age can lead to anxiety disorders and depression later in life. This impact goes beyond helping individual people and mirrors greater trends across the state. 

Michael Niño is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and serves as the Director of the Arkansas Health Equity and Access Lab (HEAL) at the University of Arkansas. Niño collects data from people across Arkansas every year through a 60 question survey and a section of the survey is about food access. This is to get an estimate on how many people in Arkansas are struggling and the best ways to help them. He found that 45% of black Arkansans 42.9% of hispanic Arkansans and 25% of white Arkansans are food insecure. 

After years of collecting data to understand the community needs better, Niño found that Arkansas has one of the highest premature death rates in the country. “We currently rank 43rd with respect to premature death and that equates to over 11,00 years of potential life loss every year before the age of 75,” says Niño. These habits are affecting the length and quality of people’s lives. 

Despite Arkansas being the birthplace of big corporations like Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt etc. Economic inequality, learning divides and poor access to higher paying jobs contribute to the food insecurity issue. “All of it is in constellation together,” Niño said. All of these factor into food insecurity rates and why they are becoming a larger issue. Arkansas is known for growing food through agriculture. This area is not typically considered to be poorly funded but so many people are food insecure and this issue is disrupting thousands of people every year just in the NWA area as well as millions across the country. 

Arkansas is a rural state and has many food deserts. A food desert is a low-income area that doesn’t have access to nutrient dense, affordable food or live so far from it it is hard to get. A lot of people who are food insecure also can’t afford to pay for things like gas to go out and buy food. Which increases the severity of food insecurity. 

One-in-five rural residents received SNAP compared to 15 percent of urban residents. There is estimated to be a food desert in all 75 counties of Arkansas meaning that a resident has to travel more than one mile in urban cities and ten miles in rural cities to obtain nutritious and fresh food. Rural residents especially those who live in food deserts are more likely to be food insecure especially without a form of transportation. This is a main cause of hunger in Arkansas. 

Food insecurity comes with its own set of external problems as well. Mental health issues like anxiety and depression as well as malnutrition. Malnutrition is a direct result of a person not getting all of the nutrients and diet that is required to function. Malnutrition can also lead to fatigue, organ failure, weakened immunity and other harmful diseases and side effects. 

Jamie I. Baum, PhD is the Director for the Center for Human Nutrition within the University System Division of Agriculture and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science.“Single parent households, underrepresented populations and people of color are affected most by food insecurity,” Baum said. “Being food insecure is a constant burden of stress,” added Baum. 

While doing studies on food insecurity researchers realized how many people do not have access to a fridge or an oven. Or even a car to get to the grocery store or the studies. A major part of food is the preparations and access to a place where food can be stored. Also being able to get to a grocery store if a car isn’t available. Without storage, residents can’t have access to cooking and have to resort to nonperishable processed items. 

The University of Arkansas has a food pantry on campus near the student union with many options for students and faculty to get food. To get something from the pantry you need a student ID card or faculty card and you can get items.The pantry on campus is having a similar issue when it comes to storing items, refrigerator space and being able to cook food is a major part of the problem. The kitchen and office are compact in a small space of the pantry on the side of the shelves. They sometimes have to decline donations due to the lack of storage space. 

Ava Caron is one of two interns at the Full Circle Food Pantry on campus. Caron often hosts cooking classes at the kitchen where people who rely on the food pantry or don’t can learn how to make food. “I don’t even like cooking that much. I just want it to be easy” she said. Caron wants to teach people to make healthy affordable food that is easy to make.

The hardest part of working at the food bank for Caron is trying to make decisions for people who need food. Part of her job is determining portion sizes people can have and what inventory is more necessary. “We were considering changing the limits of how much people can get on an item,” she said, “but it’s heavy on me to decide how much someone gets because they need it,” she adds. The pressure of being one of the deciders weighs on Caron.

Some items that go by fast at the pantry are snacks like granola bars, crackers and cereal. They also have items like feminine hygiene products, diapers, sponges and Caron says a lot of those items are very popular and run out quickly. 

When walking through the few aisles with Caron it looks like a lot of food. Shelves upon shelves of colorful cans of vegetables, beans, soups and bright packaging of various snacks and jars of peanut butter all clearly organized with labels. Loose items in big black boxes.There are 34,161 students enrolled in the school. Many people rely on the food pantry for roommates and family members as well, not just students. The pantry has limits on what a person can take but they will serve any person in the community at least once then they will help them get the help they need after if they can not accommodate them in the future. 

Students and facility can order on iPads beforehand and pick up or come in store for orders. They also have big lockers outside for when the pantry is closed for pickups. They also offer a delivery express that goes to different places on campus like the agriculture building. They try to make food pickup as easy as possible and without embarrassment.  

With increasing inflation rates, groceries and necessary items are getting harder to afford for everyone but are becoming unmanageable for people who are already struggling. The inflation rate in the United States increased to 3.30% in March 2026 compared to 2.40% in February of 2026. 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was created to help families afford things like groceries and various items based on household size, income and assets. Citizens apply through agencies in the state and the SNAP was helping over 41 million people in 2022. 5.6% of Washington county residents participate in SNAP.  

On October 21st 2025, there was a 43 day government shutdown and because the SNAP benefits came through the government millions of people experienced delays depending on how the state processed it. With so many people relying on SNAP and experiencing delays, residents looked to food banks to help until payments. This put pressure on food pantries to have even more items readily available so people who experienced delayed payments were not starving. 

According to Baum a main struggle is getting all of the food groups to people who are food insecure, especially protein. “Protein is so important for children’s growth and development but people can’t afford high quality protein,” she said. Having more protein dense food helps a person to feel less hungry for a longer period of time which would greatly help a person struggling with food insecurity. “Oftentimes they go for packaged and processed food because that is what they have access to,” she says. Carbs are the least filling nutrient and are often packaged and processed. 

According to Arkansas HEAL, the obesity rate in Washington county is 38.9%. People who are struggling getting food can’t always afford the most nutrient dense organic food so they rely on cheaper options. With this they also don’t always have places to store or cook food. 

“I think we are going to see a lot more food insecurity as the prices of groceries go up,” Baum said. In January 2000, the average cost of ground beef was $1.48. In January 2026, the average price for a pound of beef cost $6.75. As prices continually increase it is harder for Americans to afford forcing citizens to find cheaper less nutritious options which will also lead to a higher obesity rate and lower life span. 

Arkansas has consistently been one of the states with the highest food insecurity rates in the United States but since 2020 the rates have been steadily increasing. With the loss of jobs during the pandemic and the increased cost of groceries it is way more difficult to afford food especially for a family.

So many places in Northwest Arkansas want to help this food insecurity rate lower. Places like Cobblestone Farms, Feeding Fayetteville and many other local food pantries. 

Cobblestone Farms is a non-profit farm that’s goal is to grow nutritious organic vegetables to give to people who need it. In 2025, 34,272 pounds of fresh organic produce was donated to four Northwest Arkansas communities by Cobblestone Farms. Their focus is feeding students and families in Northwest Arkansas schools and providing food pantries with nutrient dense food. They exist to cultivate a community free from hunger through sustainable agriculture. 

They can’t grow nearly enough for the people who need it here and have the most trouble finding funds because they are entirely reliant on donations. They even created a smaller farm in Springdale run by one only one person to try and meet the great demand of the area.

Greg Guillot is the Community Outreach and Development manager at Cobblestone Farms. He helps lead volunteers and get as much of the community engaged as possible. In order to better the community as a whole. “We love having youth groups and kids come to Cobblestone to volunteer,” Guilliot says. Teaching people, especially kids about food insecurity will help spread awareness for the future.

There is a lot of action currently being taken to help lower food insecurity rates for the future like the non-profit charities and food pantries as well as surveys to better understand how many people are actually food insecure in the community. Arkansas distributed $500,000 across six food bank networks in the state when the SNAP benefits were supposed to stop in November. 

Even with benefits like SNAP and food pantries the demand for food is overwhelming and growing. The burden of food insecurity is a struggle that impacts thousands of people in Northwest Arkansas everyday. The community is coming together in food pantries, non profit businesses to try and combat the issue but behind every statistic is a real person who struggles every day and until needs are met will continue to struggle.