"...Potluck was founded on the visionary concept that excess food should feed someone who is hungry rather than go to waste."

The state’s only food rescue organization, Potluck was founded on the visionary concept that excess food should feed someone who is hungry rather than go to waste.

As Arkansas climbs to the top of the ladder as one of the poorest – and hungriest – states in the nation, where one in four of our neighbors are unsure where their next meal is coming from – letting millions of pounds of good food go to waste – instead of rescuing it so it can be put into the hands of those who need it the most – defies logic.

Potluck turns excess un-served and/or unsold prepared, perishable, frozen and other food into millions of meals annually for hungry Arkansans by tapping hundreds of donors in all segments of the foodservice industry to include restaurants, hospitals, hotels, caterers, markets, farmers, greenmarkets, university and corporate cafeterias, event centers, wholesalers, distributors and more.

This year we will distribute close to 5 million pounds of food to a broad, diverse and rapidly expanding network of community food programs that provide prepared meals or grocery items to over 7,000 economically disadvantaged children, the working poor, indigent seniors and homeless adults and families a week throughout Pulaski County and in low-income communities in south and southeast Arkansas.

Our ability to pick up food and quickly turn it around and distribute it free of charge to agencies multiple times a week instead of once a month has been crucial in helping all of our food programs, especially frontline agencies like kitchens and pantries – better meet the challenge of alleviating hunger among a growing number of individuals and families who are struggling to get by.

During this holiday season, I’d like to ask that you consider adding Potluck to your holiday giving. We count on your support during the year to help us connect children, adults and families with good food for meals each and every day by expanding and improving food rescue, distribution and developing programs and strategies to address the increasing demand for food.

We thank you for your support and wish you and yours a happy, healthy holiday season.

A Fresh Perspective on
the Power of Potluck

During my first visit, I witnessed trucks unloading hundreds of pounds of scrumptious food from local restaurants of all types and sizes, and markets I shop at regularly and was astounded by the amount and quality of the food – and even more amazed to learn that only a very small portion of many thousands of pounds of food rescued daily is returned to home base where it’s mixed into nutritious meals for kids at KIDS’ PANTRY sites, teens at youth shelters and women and their children at emergency shelters.

Salads, meats, pizzas, sandwiches, fruits, vegetables, soups, comfort foods and more flooded in from some of Little Rock’s finest and favorite food spots—all freshly prepared and ready to be served or sold just a few hours earlier – and all food that would have been destined for the trash bin if not for Potluck.

During my second trip to Potluck, I learned the other side of the story – where food goes and the impact it makes – by following a loaded truck making a food delivery to Reaching Our Children and Neighborhoods (ROCAN), a KIDS’ PANTRY site in North Little Rock.

ROCAN director Leifel Jackson explained that “consistent and generous deliveries of outstanding food” from Potluck not only lets him put “sit-down meals on the table” for kids at the program – but also allows him to share food with a child’s family – or even someone in the neighborhood – who is having a hard time as well.

I have come to love Little Rock and greatly respect the practical and much-need work this  “small” organization with a big mission does. Potluck saves millions of pounds of terrific food from going to waste so it can be used to help feed hungry children, adults and families – and in the process of doing so, changes lives in more ways than any of us could know, each and every day.

At the end of my visit to ROCAN, Mr. Jackson summed up my feelings for Potluck and its work simply and eloquently when he said, “Potluck does good for us, and through their good, we’re able to help others.” Enough said.

Lauron Sonnier Stewart

Mother, Author, Marketing Consultant,
and New Fan/Supporter of Potluck

Dreams can’t begin without dinner.

-Pat Jackson, Director, We Care of Pulaski County,
KIDS' PANTRY site, Hensley, AR

Each week, the PANTRY delivers of a wide variety of over 7,000 pounds of food that’s been mixed and matched into nutritious meals for 2,400 youngsters 6 to 17 years of age at 39 sites.

Our ability to provide sites with food for about 30,000 meals each month means that: after school, kids who are unable to count on having anything to eat at home – or anything of nutritional value – are assured of receiving hot dinner meals during the week – and when school is out for teacher work days, spring break, the winter holidays and the summertime, they can also count on having hearty lunches during the week at the program.

Feeding kids year-round since 1997, the KP is a win-win for youngsters, their families and the entire community.

 Photographs by Nancy Nolan Photography