Bear Essentials Food Pantry awarded Campus Care Grant

CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas Bear Essentials Food Pantry has received a Campus Care Grant from the National Association of College Auxiliary Services Foundation to expand campus access to fresh foods.

Through a partnership with UCA’s service-learning program, the pantry organization will construct at least four raised garden beds to grow produce. The grant provides funding for a commercial-grade refrigerator, shelves for starting seeds, grow lights, a seed-starting medium, soil and compost, and ServeSafe food-handling training. The grant was in the amount of $4,800.

“Since 2014, the goal of the Bear Essentials Food Pantry [has been] to combat food insecurity among the UCA community,” said Wendy Holbrook, UCA assistant vice president of engagement, leadership and service. “This grant provides all students with the opportunity to access and consume fresh produce, which we know will benefit their health.”

Garden-bed construction will begin in June, and students will plant seeds between Aug. 25 and Sept. 15. The first harvesting is planned for Oct. 15 through Dec. 1, 2022. Each January, students will begin summer plants indoors while planting winter crops outside. In April, students will transfer the summer plants to the garden beds.

Produce can be harvested in three to four weeks. Each spring and fall semester, classes will maintain the garden beds. Faculty and student volunteers will be responsible for the garden beds each summer.

The pantry reported 2,575 visits in the 2020-21 academic year. Faculty, staff and students currently fund the pantry. Its food inventory is limited and consists of nonperishable canned foods and dry goods. The pantry is an affiliate of the Arkansas Food Bank and a member of the College & University Food Bank Alliance.