More than 20 officials from five food banks in Arkansas gathered recently at the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank to hear about food nutrition.

Chris Long, director of research and evaluation at UAMS Northwest, and Courtney Kennedy, director of Cooking Matters with the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine, Portland, Maine, lead the discussions during the day-and-a-half-long meeting.

The Good Shepherd Food Bank is the only food bank in Maine and serves 400 partner agencies, 130 schools, 60 farms and 15 health providers. It serves 22 million meals and distributes 26 million pounds of food annually.

Because of the low income of the residents of Maine, people have to make choices between food and other household expenses such as medicine and utilities, Kennedy said.

Eighty percent of the food pantry participants go to a pantry once a month, she said. They work but can’t afford food.

She credited food pantries in the schools with creating better relations between the schools and parents. They have seen a doubling of meals provided in the past six years. She expects that number to increase.

Good Shepherd also is contracting with farmers to grow food under a program – Mainers Feeding Mainers, Kennedy said. It impacts communities by investing in local businesses (farmers) and it grows the economy.

More than 60 farmers were paid $755,000 to produces 2 million pounds of local produce, which is provided free to the partner agencies.

“Mainers Feeding Mainers has been a game changer,” she said.

Long discussed nutrition and told those attending that UAMS was there to assist them.