River Valley Food Bank to close, lacks funds
STACI VANDAGRIFF/RIVER VALLEY & OZARK EDITION
RUSSELLVILLE — The River Valley Food Bank should be celebrating its 16th anniversary this month; instead, it’s closing its doors on Friday because it can’t pay the bills.
Founder and co-director Roxanne Martin said the organization owes $120,000 on the building at 880 Tyler Road and about $12,000 on a freezer.
A Go Fund Me Account launched Aug. 21 was a last-ditch effort to raise $140,000. It only had $480 donated early last week. Martin said she is frustrated by the lack of support.
“Everybody likes to talk the talk and put it on Facebook they support it, but they … never come through,” she said. “We’re tired. We’re all over 60. We’re all disabled, and we can’t get any dedicated volunteers. We can’t keep it up.”
On the River Valley Food Bank Facebook page, some people did offer to volunteer. One woman posted that she called to volunteer and didn’t get an answer. Others suggested that the proposed casino in Russellville pay to save the food bank, which started a debate about the casino.
The food bank served 2,218 people last month, Martin said.
“We never turn anybody away, no matter where they’re from,” she said.
Food distribution is made four days a month, from 10-11:30 a.m. and 1-6 pm.
“We’re usually packed,” she said. “There’s a great need; we’ve got a lot of people who depend on it and stuff; this is their source of extra food, or food period.”
The last food distributions will be Thursday and Friday; then, the food bank is having a sale for its contents Sept. 27-28 and Oct. 25-26.
The organization buys food from the Arkansas Food Bank, gets leftover food from Walmart and Kroger, and is the recipient of Feeding America in Pope County, which has contracts with companies such as ConAgra and Tyson, Martin said. Food that is surplus or left over from those companies and others is donated to the River Valley Food Bank.
Overall food insecurity in Pope County was 16 percent in 2017 and 23.6 percent for children in the county, according to the Feeding America website.
Martin posted on Facebook that “getting the food is not the issue; it’s money and faithful workers.” She said two to six dedicated volunteers help each month.
Martin started the food bank in September 2003 in the basement
of her church, Round Rock, “just to help people,” she said. Church member Bill Wade said he quickly joined her to run it.
Martin said they outgrew the church and four years ago, they rented the building on Tyler Road and then had a co-signer to purchase it for $144,000.
They made money by buying items from organizations that sell items returned from stores, “anything you’d buy at Target or Walmart.”
“We have kitchen gadgets, lights, dishes; Lord, we’ve got a little bit of everything,” Martin said.
At first, those sales each month were enough to pay the bills.
“They’ve fallen off quite a bit,” she said of the sales. “We can’t buy product, because we can’t afford it.”
The electricity bill is over $1,000 a month, Martin said; the three-year balloon mortgage is $999.89 a month.
“The bank won’t refinance because we can’t pay our bills. With our sales, we do enough to pay our building, just barely enough, and our freezer payment,” she said. “We had $30 something last month left over.”
Martin said they have tried writing grants — and even paid people to write grants — and never were awarded any, sent out letters trying to get donations and had benefit dinners. She said promises of financial support haven’t come through.
“We reached out when we moved — we had a church here in town that told us when we moved, they’d go half with us,” she said. “We never got a dime. We’ve had three churches say that.”
The only consistent church support the food bank gets is $100 a month from Round Rock, she said.
Co-director Bill Wade agreed with Martin that support in volunteers and donations has been disappointing.
“We just don’t have any supporters like they [organizations] said we would have. Different organizations said they’d support us, and they never did come back. I’m disabled and almost 74, and I just do what I can do financially. We just can’t stretch it that far.
“I hate it. When you see a little lady when she signs up and she cries, because she knows where her next meal is coming from ….,” he said, not finishing his sentence.
Martin said all the flurry of media attention hasn’t helped much.
“These stories, you’d think they’d generate people try to come help us stay open; it hasn’t. It’s generated people who try to come get food, ‘Oh, I wanted to see what I can get before we close.’ Last week, we had over 72 new people,” Martin said.
Or, people are interested in the assets.
“People say, ‘I heard you had this — I’d like to put my name down to get that,’” she said.
The building is for sale, but Wade said he doesn’t know how the organization will continue to make payments on it. He said he still has faith.
“That’s [faith] what it takes,” he said.
Martin agreed. “I don’t know what I”m going to do. I’m going to wait and see what God has,” she said.
When asked what he wants people to know, Wade said: “Send some supporters.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 3270370 tkeith@arkansasonline.com. or