SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Two organizations held a meeting on Aug. 31 in Springdale to go over a new report about the impact of hunger on the Marshallese community in the area and inequity in the food safety net.
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) and the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese (ACOM) have been working together for more than a year to study the issue and possible solutions.
Laura Kellams, Northwest Arkansas Director of AACF, says the Marshallese community is one of the most food insecure in our state.
“And yet, they're left out of the SNAP program, which is commonly known as the food stamp program,” Kellams said of the lack of assistance the Marshallese experience.
Kellams says an oversight in federal law caused the community to be ineligible for food assistance, and the goal of the report and the meeting is to find ways to fix that.
“A lot of people don't understand that the Marshallese community are lawfully residing here in Arkansas and in America,” Kellams said. “They can come and go, and they're lawful permanent residents. But under the law … even though they're lawfully here, and they can permanently be here, the definitions don't match up, and that's how they ended up getting left out.”
Melisa Lealan, ACOM Founding Executive Director, says this is especially important in Northwest Arkansas.
“Northwest Arkansas in particular has the largest population of Marshallese outside the Marshall Islands,” Lealan said. “It’s a very under-served community. A lot of people don’t understand who we are.”
After more than a year of research, the two organizations held a meeting to talk about their findings.
“It's really hard to measure because it’s a small population, but in anecdotal surveys and studies, they've been shown to have a food insecurity rate as high as 80%, during the pandemic it was just many times more than the overall population, so there's a huge inequity there,” Kellams said.
The organizations say there is legislation being considered by Congress right now that could help.
“This is a really great example of what could be a quick and easy fix that would just affect thousands of people in our community and across the state,” Kellams said.
She says the best option is the proposed Compact Impact Fairness Act (CIFA), a bill co-sponsored by U.S. Representative Steve Womack and U.S. Senator John Boozman that would allow Compact of Free Association (COFA) migrants like the Marshallese to qualify for most safety net programs like SNAP.
Kellams says Congress could take action on legislation that could secure SNAP benefits for the Marshallese community in the coming weeks.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.