The Walmart.org Volunteer Center at the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank is bustling on a late-August afternoon: conveyor belts, soft collisions of cardboard, the low laugh that passes between strangers who suddenly feel like neighbors.
A team in matching Walmart “Spark” shirts joins a mix of longtime volunteers at the assembly line — folding flaps, taping up boxes, nodding at one another as if working on a neighborhood project that has always belonged to them. It’s an improvised choreography that helps to feed a region. On days like this, the Food Bank’s new home at the Claude & Betty Harris Center for Hunger Relief feels less like an institution and more like a community gathering space, a place where neighbors come together to help neighbors. Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Taylor Speegle, notes simply, “Volunteerism is the heart of what we do. Whether packing boxes, working a mobile pantry, or helping at an event like Flavor of Giving, this place doesn’t function without them. We can’t get food into neighbors’ hands without volunteers.”
That word runs through the nonprofit’s work like a lifeline, stripping away the vague language of charity and replacing it with something more personal. “I love that we use the word neighbor. Pretty much everybody wants to support their neighbor, right?” Speegle emphasizes. “If I need milk in my house, I’m going to get up, go to the store, buy milk. That’s not true for everybody. Food insecurity means you don’t have reliable access to food. So, this word ‘neighbor’ really connects that from person to person. It establishes dignity and a relationship to those individuals.”
The organization’s connection-driven model struck a chord with Melody Richard, SVP of Pantry at Walmart, inspiring her to partner with the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. Returning for her second year as Honorary Chair of the organization’s upcoming Corporate Food Drive Challenge sponsored by Spectrum Brands, she sees the effort as a natural extension of Walmart’s purpose. “We fight every day to keep prices lower so that food is more affordable and accessible to all families,” Melody explains, “and our engagement with the Food Bank is also where we put in our time and our resources to give back, and it’s so important. It creates camaraderie within our team and helps us live our passion, which is ‘Pantry with a Purpose.’ It drives us, motivates us, and inspires us, and the Food Bank helps bring it to life.”
The NWAFB’s purpose is urgent, Richard and Speegle agree. In Arkansas, nearly one in five residents face food insecurity — the highest rate in the nation. Just in Northwest Arkansas, the number has grown from 89,000 to more than 95,000 people in just a few years, according to data provided by Feeding America. The reasons are as complex as they are commonplace: inflation, housing costs, health emergencies, even the unexpected expense of a new set of tires. For many families, one surprise can tip the scales from stability to crisis. That’s where the Food Bank steps in, not as a stopgap, but as a bridge — making sure no one in the region has to choose between dinner and the electric bill.
Melody doesn’t mince words: “Arkansas is Number 1 in food insecurity, and that’s not a good thing. So, for us on the Pantry team, the Food team, or Walmart and the community we serve here in Northwest Arkansas, we know the importance that the Food Bank plays in helping feed our local area and being a beacon of hope for so many people.”
If the Food Bank is a beacon, then its volunteers are the light that keeps it shining. The facility stays “fully packed” with volunteers most days of the week, Speegle reveals. Up to 200 people can work side-by-side at any given time in the Walmart.org Volunteer Center, building boxes destined for families, school pantries, or distribution events across the region while others stock shelves at Feed Rogers, the Food Bank’s client-choice pantry, or volunteer in any other capacity where volunteers are needed. Still others serve on committees or boards. Whether they show up weekly, or give time at a specific fundraiser, all those who support the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank are ambassadors for the mission.
“The more that our name is out there, the more partners we can draw in, the more neighbors will know where to go when they need the help,” Speegle details. That visibility is what drives new collaborations — like a recent partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum and local farmer’s markets — designed to connect with people in settings both unconventional and vital. “It’s sort of disruptive thinking; we’re going to be in places you might not have expected to see us, because we know people who might need our help are there, too. And that’s the whole point. We’re trying to think outside the box.”
Tangible impact defines the Food Bank’s philosophy; every program from the mobile pantry to school partnerships is rooted in data. The organization has more than 30 years of benchmarking and constantly evaluates where and how food is distributed. “It’s all part of a sort of charitable ecosystem to make sure we’re in the right place to fit that need,” Speegle shares. It’s a model that scales from individuals to corporations. Many Food Bank volunteers show up alone or with family members, packing boxes that translate directly into meals. But others come in teams, representing local companies that want to make an impact beyond their office walls. “And then they’ll go back to their office and tell their home teams, ‘Look what we’re doing in Northwest Arkansas to feed this community.’ It’s so special, because it feels very tangible to them.”
One such effort happens every fall: the Corporate Food Drive Challenge sponsored by Spectrum Brands. The drive channels friendly competition into real results, stocking the Food Bank’s shelves ahead of the holidays. Richard says it’s the perfect season to remind the community what collective action can achieve. “My team and I feel an incredible responsibility and opportunity to help families stretch their dollar further each month and put more food on the table … because many families are struggling to make ends meet,” she says solemnly. But giving back to the community is part of the fabric of Walmart, she attests, and associates are empowered to embrace that mindset. Melody recounts how an upgrade to the direct store delivery side of the business inspired an associate to wonder if the tech could also be applied to food donations in the company’s Retail Rescue partnership with Feeding America and other affiliates. “One of our greatest strengths is logistics, and we can move food efficiently through the system. That we are reducing waste and are able to give that food to people in need is something I’m really proud of.”
Julie Gehrki, President of the Walmart Foundation and Senior Vice President of Philanthropy at Walmart, reflects on the company’s deep history of giving. Associates often share stories with her of raising money for children’s hospitals or spending weekends volunteering at local food banks — a culture of service that has endured for decades. “Above all, our greatest strength is our associates, and their commitment to local communities naturally extends through volunteerism,” she says. Walmart continues to build on this heritage through its Spark Good program, which connects associates and customers with more than 50,000 local organizations around the country and matches their donations of both time and money. It’s a way, Gehrki notes, of tangibly showing support for those who step forward to serve.
In Northwest Arkansas, that alignment is visible in the Walmart.org Volunteer Center at the Food Bank, funded by Walmart and the Walmart Foundation through the nonprofit’s capital campaign. The number of unique volunteers the Food Bank can support annually has nearly doubled since the space opened, proof to Gehrki of what happens when corporate resources and community engagement move in tandem. “Volunteerism can improve your mental health, increase your sense of connection, and ultimately, grow your sense of belonging. That is powerful,” she asserts. “When we think about building caring, connected communities across the country, places where our stores and associates thrive, volunteerism plays an important role.”
Momentum is the word Speegle returns to when considering the future of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. And a phrase longtime President and CEO Kent Eikenberry has repeated for years keeps him grounded in the purpose: Because of you, someone will eat today. Speegle marvels at the weight of it. “How many thousands of people have eaten because of Kent?” he asks. “It’s extraordinary. Donations are up. Volunteerism is up. Operationally, we’re thriving. The momentum he’s built — we need to keep it going.”
“It just takes one interaction with a food insecure neighbor to get you hooked for life,” Eikenberry confesses, speaking, of course, from experience. Retiring early next year after more than a decade of leadership, Kent thinks back to the encounter that planted the seed for his heart for service. “I still remember my first time volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry over 25 years ago. My life’s priorities changed the minute I saw a father’s face change from a look of despair to a look of hope simply because he knew his children would eat that night. Nobody CHOOSES to be food insecure. Nobody WANTS to be food insecure. Through the efforts of this supportive community, Nobody NEEDS to be food insecure.”
Eikenberry’s rallying cry now stretches across the warehouse wall of the Food Bank’s year-old home at the Claude & Betty Harris Center for Hunger Relief. It’s a daily reminder that the work inside these 83,000 square feet belongs to everyone in Northwest Arkansas. The facility is a physical expression of the region’s commitment to its neighbors — expanded dry, cold, and freezer storage, a cold dock, teaching kitchen, multi-purpose room, and a protein pack room that has already moved more than a million pounds of protein so far this year. A strategic plan through 2030 is already in motion as well, with an eye toward meeting the region’s rising need. “Programs we’re doing that are working, let’s do more,” Speegle says. “Programs that aren’t quite meeting that need, let’s figure that out. It’s exciting, because this building gives us the capacity to learn, to adjust, and to keep pushing forward.”
The expanded facilities may create the capacity to move more food to more neighbors, but it’s the human moments that crystallize why the work matters. Helping a neighbor with mobility challenges pick out her items from the shelves at Feed Rogers. Hearing a recent volunteer share her testimony of turning to the Food Bank herself during hard times. Speegle could list a dozen more moments illustrating that dignity and compassion are as essential to the mission as the food itself. “I leave here most days, if not all days, saying, ‘That was a good day.’ Because we are taking care of people; we’re there for them. And we’re going to keep doing it and keep reaching more people.”
“Fighting food insecurity isn’t one campaign — this is a year-long drum beat that many of us are engaged in because there are 365 days of the year that people are living food insecure,” Melody adds. That rhythm carries into her personal life, too; her family often supporting and volunteering with several area organizations fighting food insecurity. Her voice takes on a tender note as she remembers inviting a loved one going through a difficult season to volunteer alongside her, believing that serving others might also bring a measure of healing to them both. “I saw a little spark in her again because she was able to give back. Being able to take her into an environment of hope reminded me how important it is that we give people the opportunity to experience that.”
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