Next week, Potluck Food Rescue’s signature event Driving Away Hunger will roll back into the East Village neighborhood. The annual bash brings together bites from some of your favorite local restaurants — think The Pantry, Raduno, Ciao Baci — with live music and auctions to raise funds for Potluck’s mission to prevent waste by providing excess food to hungry Arkansans.
Ahead of Sept. 26, we caught up with board member Deanna Barlogie to talk Potluck and get the scoop on this year’s event.
What made you want to get involved with Potluck?
DB: I loosely knew about Potluck years ago, but wasn’t fully aware of what the organization did or the reach it had. So it wasn’t until last year and serving alongside Yvette Parker (when she chaired this event in 2023) that I really plugged in and learned how critical and important the work of Potluck is to our state.
The nonprofit has seen some big changes this year, including Sylvia Blain leaving her post as executive director. What can we expect from Potluck in the future, near or otherwise?
DB: Potluck is so proud of Sylvia and her new chapter with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, and we’ll forever be grateful she was such a big part of making Potluck what it is today. In the meantime, Potluck will continue to focus on growing and expanding our footprint! We are continuing to add more food partners and are working closely with our current food programs and pantries across the state. In fact, thanks to a recent grant we were awarded, we were able to move forward on purchasing a refrigerated truck to help move more perishable food.
The mission behind Potluck is wonderfully straightforward, but what is an aspect that might surprise readers about the process or impact?
DB: I’ll let the statistics speak for themselves. In 2023, Arkansas rose to the No. 1 spot in food insecurity in the nation. To combat that, Potluck provided the equivalent of 408,723 meals in 2023 free of charge to area hunger relief agencies. And of that, I’d like to note the impact Potluck’s fresh food has on the food pantries we service. Food pantries often struggle to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to their clientele, and nearly half of the food we distributed in 2023 was fruits and vegetables.
Moving on to Driving Away Hunger. What can we expect at this year’s event? Any new elements?
DB: Driving Away Hunger is the party you actually want to attend. We’re casual, we’re laid back and we’re jam-band fun! This year we’re going to party at Little Rock’s newest downtown venue, the Eastside Scrapyard. We have seven area restaurants teed up to bring stellar noshes, and our amazing chair Zara Abbasi is supplying us with her world-famous desserts. I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t mention our amazing silent auction as well.
What are you personally most looking forward to at the party?
DB: I’m a sucker for the boozy ring toss. For a $40 donation, guests can take their shot at various liquor and wine bottles and shoot ’til they win. It’s always such a fun time and the crowd gets into it.
Driving Away Hunger takes place on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 5:30 p.m. at the East side Scrapyard. Click here to purchase tickets and learn more on the Facebook event page.
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