In response to a recent USDA report, the Pine Bluff community is trying to reduce food insecurity

Pine Bluff, Arkansas – The US Department of Agriculture recently revealed new data that indicates an increase in the number of Arkansans experiencing food insecurity.

The US Department of Agriculture reports that over 19% of Arkansans are unsure about where their next meal is coming from. In 2023, this percentage was 16.6%; it is now higher.

The analysis places the blame on declining federal assistance programs, rising living expenses, and inflation.

Founder of Delta Network Food Bank Jacqueline Ross said, “It makes my heart bleed.”

Ross stated that it is disheartening to see that Arkansas is the most impoverished state in the US, nearly two decades after he established the Delta Network Food Bank in Pine Bluff.

Since establishing her group in 2005, Ross claimed to have witnessed the need on a daily basis.

The state’s seventeen counties—Jefferson, Lincoln, Crittenden, Desha, Chicot, Pulaski, Ouachita, Union, Calhoun, Arkansas, Conway, Bradley, Clark, Monroe, Phillips, Grant, and Drew Counties—are served by the Delta Network Food Bank.

Ross remarked, “I’ve seen them ride across town on bicycles and leave her trying to make it back across town to give to their families with a bicycle loaded down with food.”

In addition, she reported seeing a man “walk from Star City to Pine Bluff” in order to buy food.
In Pine Bluff, the Grow Something Challenge Community Gardens are located on Alabama Street, across the town.

Since establishing the Grow Something Challenge gardens in 2017, Obrennan Moss has grown more than eighty different varieties of fruits and vegetables.

Moss stated, “I wanted to spread my backyard food gardening so other people could do it for themselves.

GSC has “used some of everything to show people they can grow” their own food, according to him.

He claimed that throughout the course of this effort, “we’ve had people come up and say I need something I’m hungry,” which is why he started inviting people to the street-side garden to give them supplies.

When he’s not giving them out, he’s teaching people how to grow their own food.

“Waste nothing” is one of the GSC’s guiding principles. Moss shows people how to grow food without a backyard, utilizing items like milk crates.

“We must make every effort to close some of those gaps,” he stated.

You can get in contact with GSC by visiting their Facebook page, GSC Community Gardens. To make a donation to the Delta Food Network, please contact founder Jacqueline Ross at 501-804-6253.