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Little Rock Food Commission outlines 2025 accomplishments and plans to tackle school meal debt
Summary
Kevin Shalin, chair of the newly formed Little Rock Food Commission, reviewed 2025 accomplishments including outreach on student meal debt, meetings with state legislative staff, $15,000 in grocery gift cards purchased for affected families and more than $50,000 raised toward a $175,000 school-debt initiative for Little Rock schools.
Kevin Shalin, chair of the Little Rock Food Commission, reported to the board on Dec. 9 that the newly formed commission focused in 2025 on organization, a campaign addressing a $175,000 Little Rock School District student-meal debt, and outreach to state elected officials and school nutrition leaders.
"We started out this is a newly formed commission... Our first big project that we took on was the massive $175,000 Little Rock School District, school debt," Shalin said, and he reported the commission has raised "over $50,000" toward that goal while also purchasing more than $15,000 in grocery gift cards to assist families whose SNAP benefits were cut during a federal shutdown.
Shalin said the commission met with staff from Senator Bozeman and Representative McCullough and presented at Central High School. The commission also plans to present a report to the planning commission on a food-desert task force and has been working with Little Rock CARES and local grocery partners on distribution and outreach.
Board members thanked the commission for its work and Director Webb was noted as a board liaison to the commission. Shalin said the commission has seven members and is setting goals for 2026, including brick-and-mortar market development through neighborhood urban-garden partnerships.
What comes next: the commission will present its food-desert task-force report to the planning commission in coming days and continue fundraising and program work into 2026.
