Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Thousands line up for donated chicken
Food bank doles out 160,000 pounds of OK Foods items to area families in need
FORT SMITH — A variety of River Valley organizations came together Wednesday to help feed thousands of hungry people during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
After receiving a donation of almost 160,000 pounds of chicken from the Fort Smith’s OK Foods, the River Valley Regional Food Bank organized a food distribution for families in need Wednesday at Kay Rodgers Park in Fort Smith. Nearly 4,000 area families each received a 40-pound box of frozen chicken. It took took slightly more than five hours to distribute all of the food. The event began at 7 a.m.
Tracy Engel, director of the River Valley food bank, said anyone in need was welcome to go to the park to receive a box. Nothing more was required to receive one. About 100 volunteers participated in the distribution.
The River Valley food bank also received help for the distribution from other groups, Engel said.
For example, the Fort Smith Police Department managed the traffic outside Kay Rodgers Park, and the Van Buren Police Department, along with volunteers, managed traffic inside the park. The Chicago-based nonprofit Feeding America, of which the food bank is a member, provided assistance through a grant that the food bank received last week that went toward paying some of the volunteers.
“So they’re getting paid, but they’re also giving back to the community all at the same time, so that’s kind of a win-win,” Engel said.
Additional contributions came from the Van Buren-based Time Striping Inc., Hugg & Hall Equipment Co. and Geno’s Pizza of Alma.
Wednesday’s event was carried out in a style similar to the food bank’s April 2 distribution, when it gave away 37,000 pounds of chicken products donated by Tyson Foods and by Walmart. Volunteers loaded items into trunks or truck beds while the recipients stayed in their vehicles, much like a drive-thru, as a way to adhere to social-distancing guidelines. That distribution was conducted at the food bank facility.
Engel said that in addition to being able to serve more of the community more quickly, traffic was a primary concern in deciding to hold Wednesday’s distribution at Kay Rodgers Park, a much larger venue. Demand was so high during the April 2 event that Zero Street, where the food bank is, was heavily congested that morning, with vehicles backed up for several blocks while police directed traffic.
“This one’s running so much smoother because of the facility,” Engel said Wednesday. “There’s one way in, one way out, police helping us direct traffic.”
Trent Goins, president and chief executive officer of OK Foods, said the company was contacted to work in collaboration with the River Valley food bank. Christy Terry, vice president of human resources for OK Foods, and her team carried out the task of putting the distribution together in conjunction with, among others, the city of Fort Smith, and the Fort Smith and Van Buren police departments.
Terry said the food bank was essentially OK Foods’ main partner in this.
“And then, of course, it takes a village to be able to do something like this,” Terry said. “With a situation like we have right now, everybody was willing to participate, but we saw a need in the community, and one thing about OK Foods is we deliver in good times, but in bad times, we really step up. So [it] felt like that was something that we needed to do.”
“We kind of started this a week ago with all of our locations in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia,” Goins said. “We gave away chicken to our employees, and after we took care of our employees, we felt there was a need to take care of the communities in which we operate, and our first community was, obviously, our home base, which is Fort Smith.”