UCA’s Bear Essentials Food Pantry received a $5,000 grant from the Arkansas Hunger Alliance, which it used to buy a commercial freezer, and the grocery store ALDI has donated six tons of food since January because of a new partnership. 

Will Baker, transportation coordinator and food pantry coordinator, said the food pantry partnered with ALDI through its Retail Partner Program in January this year. 

“We’ve already seen our client numbers double,” he said. 

He said, “This connection was made through the Arkansas Food Bank. We’re partners with them, and they knew we didn’t have a grocery store that was giving us food.”

According to uca.edu, the pantry started participating in Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance’s Nutrition Pantry Program last fall and received the $5,000 grant from it in January, using the funds to purchase a commercial freezer. 

Baker said the pantry would regularly have to ask Aramark to borrow its freezer.

“So when we get big loads of frozen food, we didn’t have enough storage space,” he said. “So now we have the new freezer, and we still had to use them [Aramark] the other day. We had so much frozen food.”

He said the pantry recently started a special diet section for people who are gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan.

An average of 528 people visited the pantry each month last year, with an average of 50 new clients each month.

The Bear Essential Food Pantry is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Visit https://uca.edu/foodpantry/ for more information.