LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Arkansas once had the highest rate of senior hunger in the country, but a new study says that is changing.

The rate of Arkansans age 60 and older who report they don't always have enough food has fallen from 25 percent to less than 20 percent. A coalition began working on the issue in 2014, from the state Department of Human Services to six Feeding America food banks and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.

Nancy Conley, the alliance's communications director, said they focused on getting people signed up for food-assistance programs such as SNAP, also known as food stamps.

"We developed a department for SNAP outreach, and we have volunteers that go to those places where seniors frequent and help them understand that signing up for SNAP could make the difference," she said. "And, it apparently has worked."

A study of senior hunger in America that was released this month found that nationally, almost 10 million people age 60 and older face the threat on hunger on a regular basis - a number that has increased more than a third since 2001. The study said members of minority groups in southern states are most at risk.

Conley said her group's volunteers have found that seniors often aren't sure whether they're eligible for food assistance.

"Many seniors are too proud to apply for food assistance. Many of them think that they don't qualify," she said. "They don't understand that they can have a house, they can have a car and they can still qualify. They all assume that they are too well off."

She said older Arkansans who still are working, often at menial jobs, are vulnerable until they become eligible for retirement-related benefits.

"The seniors who are most at risk are those who are 50 to 69," she said. "They are younger seniors who don't qualify yet for Medicare or housing assistance, or utility assistance."

Conley added that caring for grandchildren becomes a major factor for some.

"We have found that probably half of the seniors in Arkansas who are receiving SNAP benefits are raising grandchildren," she said. "So, that does put a lot of stress on incomes that just don't have anywhere to go."

Conley said poverty is the main driver of food insecurity in Arkansas, particularly among seniors. She said she believes lawmakers need to expand, rather than continually cut, benefit programs and require employers to pay a living wage.

The report is online at arhungeralliance.org.


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Organizations working to fight food insecurity across Arkansas support two bills before state legislators.

The Grocery Tax Relief Act would repeal the state grocery tax and the Good Neighbor Act would expand protections for food donors and food banks.

Brian Burton, CEO of Arkansas Foodbank, said several recent bills passed by lawmakers have helped Arkansans who cannot afford food.

"Expanding school lunch programs and raising the asset limit on SNAP Benefits," Burton outlined. "And in the current session they passed the universal Free School Breakfast bill."

Arkansas is one of only 10 states in the country with a grocery tax. It generates approximately $10 million a year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ranked Arkansas number one for food insecurity for the last two years. If the bills are passed, they will go into effect in January 2026.

Burton noted they are monitoring possible changes in federal funding because of cuts by the Trump Administration.

"When they talk about cutting the federal budget, they are hurting low-resource states like Arkansas because we are very dependent on all the myriads of federal government programs," Burton pointed out. "Some of which have been funded for decades."

Nearly 11,000 more Arkansans are struggling to make ends meet than in 2022. It's estimated nearly 47% of Arkansas households are living paycheck to paycheck. Burton stressed those residents will be affected the most by any changes.

"Programs like SNAP and WIC, the Farm bill, these are mission-critical and central to the fight against food insecurity," Burton contended. "In fact, 80% of food insecurity is solved through some form of federal nutrition program."


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Gov. Bill Lee has opted Tennessee out of the federal Summer EBT program and nonprofit groups in the state said they will work to fill the gap for families in need.

Summer EBT provides $40 a month per child for food assistance when kids are out of school.

Ella Clay, executive director of the nonprofit Healing Minds and Souls, said losing $75 million in federal aid is disappointing. Her organization serves 500 meals a week and provides resources to families in the 37208 ZIP code, an area with high food insecurity and significant challenges for residents.

"We have food," Clay pointed out. "We have produce, vegetables, fruits, personal hygiene products, products for your household, and various products even for children. And so, those are the ways that we're here to serve our community."

Nearly 700,000 children benefited from the Summer EBT program last year in Tennessee. Gov. Lee has instead announced a state-funded alternative to provide a one-time, $120 payment to eligible families in underserved counties.

C.J. Sentell, CEO of the Nashville Food Project, said despite the proposed federal budget cuts, his organization vows to keep providing summer meals for kids and continue participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program.

Sentell noted they are working with 50 partners to deliver nearly 7,000 meals weekly from two kitchens.

"We work with those organizations to enhance their programming with food," Sentell explained. "All of our work is done in partnership with other organizations and 65% of our meals are going to children and seniors, so, think after-school programs, senior adult programs."

He added they work with partners and use federal programs to reduce costs, providing food to child care centers like Saint Luke's Community House and have expanded partnerships in the past year to reach more people with food and curb costs.


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Food-bank organizations teamed up in four states, including Wyoming, to launch the 104° West Collaborative in 2021 to better serve their Indigenous community members.

Early research has helped them understand how to serve these rural communities in culturally informed ways.

There are 23 federally recognized Native Nations across North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming - each with unique food access, security, and sovereignty issues.

President and CEO of the Montana Food Bank Network Gayle Carlson said the collaborative spent its first year interviewing key tribal leaders, to make a cultural learning series for food-bank staff and board members.

"It goes the gamut from the historical perspective of how food was used as a weapon," said Carlson, "all the way to who's the point of contact we should first be working with, so that we had that full spectrum of understanding."

The Food Bank of Wyoming's Totes of Hope program provides food for 150 Fort Washakie kids - about a third of its student population - when school isn't in session.

The organization is looking to expand its mobile food pantry deliveries on the Wind River Reservation this year.

Carlson said in cases of extremely long traveling distances, it can make more sense to use food bank resources to support agencies on or near the reservations to help serve people living there, rather than food banks delivering food themselves.

She added that the four-state area is almost 400,000 square miles.

"That was something that really struck home to me is the rural nature of these reservations," said Carlson. "They are a long way away from any services. They do not have public transportation. So for them to go a hundred miles to go to the Walmart is really, really difficult."

The Wyoming Food Bank distributed more than 615,000 pounds of food across the state's reservations in 2024.




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