Amid Cuts in Aid, A County Confronts Food and Housing Insecurity

At a recent 100 Families Initiative meeting in Jefferson County, Arkansas, a standing-room-only gathering of community members came together to ask a difficult but urgent question: how can we tackle food and housing insecurity in ways that are sustainable, community-driven, and rooted in dignity? 

Pine Bluff officials say hunger is rising as federal food aid declines. Food banks like Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) are struggling to meet growing demand. N2N Executive Director Pat Tate spoke candidly about the crisis. She described how critical food programs that once sustained low-income families have been reduced, leaving many residents without a safety net.

Yet rather than defaulting to quick fixes, the conversation at the meeting focused on long-term, systemic approaches that center on health, relationships, and ownership. 

LaTisha Brunson, who serves on the Pine Bluff city council and oversees the 100 Families Initiative of Jefferson County, hosted the meeting and served as moderator for the panel discussion. 

Lessons from Tulsa: Bringing In A Grocery Store 

Many residents voiced a strong desire to see a grocery store return to Pine Bluff, which could bring significant benefits across multiple dimensions: public health, local economy, community cohesion, and long-term stability. It could help reduce food insecurity and increase access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins to combat diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

Representatives from Tulsa—Charles Harper and Damali Wilson of World Won Development—shared the story of Oasis Fresh Market, a full-service grocery store in a disinvested area that hadn’t had a food market in about 40 years. “We talked about how we can prepare the community in Tulsa to be ready to receive this grocery store. And that's where this whole community engagement strategy began,” said Wilson. 

Wilson, like other panelists, emphasized the importance of partnerships. She explained that at community events aimed at addressing food insecurity, it’s helpful to have other components on hand: health screenings, haircuts, hot meals, and school supply giveaways. This engages as many organizations as possible and attracts community leaders. “It was just creating this hodgepodge of energy to be able to share about all of the things that are happening in the community at the same time,” she said.

Harper said when the grocery store opened in Tulsa, the effort was aimed at more than just promoting the grocery store. “When we had our grand opening in Tulsa, everybody from the city came down. We had music. So the community here will have to come together and say ‘we need this’.” 

“Ultimately, it's going to be the community that decides whether the grocery store is successful or fails. They have to support the grocery store and do their part,” noted Wilson. “So you have to think outside the box on ways to engage the community.”

Another community engagement effort she highlighted was a youth cooking competition during COVID that was virtual and unexpectedly went viral. “Half a million people watched that,” she noted. The children were sent free groceries for the competition. “We have to come up with creative ways to engage everyone in the family in order to make it work.” 

She also encouraged the Pine Bluff community to explore urban gardening in green spaces. “There are folks in the community who love community gardens and being outside in nature.” 

Brunson hopes to bring the success story of Tulsa to Pine Bluff. She reached out to the Oasis Fresh Market team after attending a conference and seeing their model for providing food access. She has been working to get buy-in and collaboration from community partners.

The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency has approved a letter of intent for future developments in the city, which includes negotiating a public-private partnership with Oasis Fresh Market.

Alternatives To Grocery Stores

Executive Director and Founder Josh Harris of Well Fed challenged the usual terminology around food insecurity. “It’s not food insecurity. It’s nutrition insecurity.” He emphasized the vital connection between nutrition and community stability. 

Harris explained that Well Fed is built to serve communities where traditional grocery stores are not economically viable, ensuring that families still have access to affordable, nutritious food—even in areas with limited options. Grocery store development is often an uphill battle in smaller communities like Pine Bluff, since traditional models depend on high volume sales that many areas simply can't support. 

Creative partnerships were highlighted as a potential workaround. Harris said his organization operates a mobile grocery program in Altheimer, bringing fresh, healthy food directly to residents through a partnership with the local library. 

“Instead of doing a grocery store, we tried a membership and then used a farm as an aggregator. The aggregator brings the food, in this case fruits and vegetables. What we try to do is develop this partnership with citizens. So they have some financial investment in it. They only have to walk or drive to the library, like a minute or two. And then that's where their grocery store is,” Harris explained. 

This model bypasses the high overhead of traditional retail by using food aggregators (nonprofits buying produce in bulk), existing buildings (like libraries), and community partners (for distribution and education).

“Because we're a nonprofit, we can buy all this wholesale amazing produce from Arkansas agriculture for pennies on what it would cost at Walmart. So instead of selling them to retail, we're taking the cost way down.”

Pine Bluff’s Housing Crisis

Lori Walker, director of economic and community development for Pine Bluff, explained that home repair assistance is available for owner-occupants through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME program funds. While these resources aren’t intended for full-scale home renovations, they can address urgent or hazardous conditions that affect a home’s safety and livability.

One significant solution discussed was the development of a new facility aimed at preventing family separation due to housing instability or homelessness. Families can live at the temporary shelter with the goal of moving them into long-term housing, whether through a Section 8 voucher or eventually purchasing a home of their own. 

Habitat For Humanity

Angela White Smith, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity in Pine Bluff, shared reflections on the housing crisis. Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit organization that helps people build or improve a home. It is best known for partnering with families in need to construct affordable housing through volunteer labor and donated materials.

“This community has had a Habitat for Humanity since 1991. But you can't ask somebody to come out and volunteer to work on a house when they don't have housing themselves,” she explained.

With limited public funding available for new housing construction, Smith has taken a creative and entrepreneurial approach—flipping houses and conducting warehouse sales to fund their work.

Now, she’s preparing to open a Habitat ReStore to generate sustainable revenue. “We have identified a location. I hope to get that store open soon, because that will start the income stream that will allow us to actually start building.”

But building homes, she says, isn’t the only goal. It is also about promoting a sense of pride and ownership. “People want to be able to say, ‘This is mine. You can't tell me that my cousin can't stay with me for a week.’”

Lasting Change Comes Through Partnership

Throughout the meeting, participants highlighted how coordinated, cross-sector work—from libraries to hospitals to housing providers—is the key to lasting change. 

“The challenge is that people don't talk to each other. They don’t work together, and they stay stuck on their own thing," said Harris. "And the other challenge is that when people are addressing a need, they think they are just providing something. It's never just about providing the object or the deliverable or the service. It's about relationships. We would rather spend every month for a year with 30 families developing with partners than pass out 1,000 food boxes in one parking lot one time.” 

Pine Bluff Mayor Vivian Flowers closed out the meeting. “We can bring a grocery store here. We will bring a grocery store here. We do have plans, but it takes some time. This is the thing: grocery stores are for profit. So this is not about finding someone who will do us a favor. So we have to focus on larger issues around our economic growth and making Pine Bluff an easier place to do business.”

In the meantime, Flowers said, the city will regenerate a sustainable farmer's market. Then, it will focus on how to replicate what was done in Altheimer by creating a mobile grocery store. And then, it will work to bring an Oasis grocery store to Pine Bluff.