The Garden in Siloam Springs held its annual fundraiser Saturday night, where members of the organization and a variety of residents and volunteers convened to celebrate the organization's ongoing effort to help fight food insecurity in the community.
This marks the fourth year the event has taken place and it serves a vital role for the nonprofit, as it allows the organization to secure the funding necessary to continue its work for the next year, said Patty Arnett, founding director of the Garden Board. The night's festivities featured dinner, drinks, a silent auction and live music, all made possible by the organization's sponsors which include Cobb Vantress, Simmons Foods, 28 Springs, Purejoy Ice Cream, The Brick Ballroom, Cafe on Broadway, Pour Jons, Creekside Taproom, Chickadee's Fresh Fare and many more.
The nonprofit, which began meeting as a board five years ago, facilitates the maintenance of a community garden located at Grace Episcopal Church that grows fruits and vegetables available to the public free of charge at anytime. Last year, around 95 pounds of food was documented leaving the garden, Arnett said. The organization currently has another community garden established at The Manna Center and are working with Kenwood Baptist Church and the Genesis House to implement another one at the tiny house project in the spring of 2019.
The Garden has also worked with JBU Creative Dining, 28 Springs and The Brick Ballroom to make Frozen Food Fridays possible, a program in which they recover and freeze uneaten or unused meals and then pass them out each Friday, Arnett said. In the last year alone, about 1,932 frozen meals were distributed each week. Before dinner and live music began, Arnett addressed the crowd to both thank them for their support and explain the significance of their contributions.
"In the nation, we have 13 million children who go to bed hungry, that breaks down to one in six," Arnett said. "So children that you feed everyday, one in six of those do not have enough food at night, and I want to do something about that. I like to think that the work we are doing at the Garden in Siloam Springs is helping to contribute to lower numbers of food insecurity in terms of children and families in Siloam Springs. We must continue to work on behalf of the people in our community who are food insecure.
"This was a big year and there is no doubt in my mind that we will see growth and change in ways that we could not imagine five years ago. You are a big part of that change, thank you for being here and thank you for financially supporting the garden."
General News on 10/17/2018