Photo Credit: Jason Masters
When Florence Haut saw employees of a restaurant throwing out unsold food back in 1989, the idea of that waste bothered her so deeply she asked if she could take the leftovers and donate them instead.
Realizing the amount of food that could be collected in a similar way, she built a team of volunteers and got the Junior League of Little Rock on board. Haut and the Junior League, along with the Interfaith Hunger Task Force and the Arkansas Foodbank, officially launched Potluck Food Rescue in January 1991, becoming the first food rescue organization in Arkansas and one of the first nationwide.
Since Haut’s initiative, Potluck has redirected millions of pounds of landfill-bound food into food-insecure homes. The rescued food serves programs throughout the state including homeless shelters, soup kitchens and centers for women, veterans and children.
The nonprofit, while no longer run by the Junior League, has taken Haut’s vision even further by expanding its undertaking into composting, food education and mitigating greenhouse gases.
Chris Wyman assumed the role of executive director in December 2024. With 17 years of experience in urban agriculture, food security and sustainable farming, Wyman’s leadership comes at a crucial time for the organization as it navigates new obstacles and an extended mission.
That mission is more vital than ever as Arkansas has the highest percentage of people lacking reliable access to healthy food in the nation.
Deanna Barlogie, Potluck board member and chair of its annual fundraiser Driving Away Hunger, sees an infrastructure issue.
“You’ve got these food deserts that are sometimes right in your own backyard,” Barlogie says, nodding to grocery store closures and costly gaps of time between applying for and receiving SNAP benefits. “We don’t have a system in place that is getting people the results they need.”
She’s quick to acknowledge these are much larger problems than Potluck can solve, but the nonprofit’s work is steeped in a sense of urgency, racing against the clock of expiring food and empty bellies.
“There’s nothing about [infrastructure change] that’s going to happen overnight, but because I’m a nuts-and-bolts, data-driven person, I wonder, ‘How do we make this work better to at least help give those around us a leg up to the next rung on the ladder?’” Barlogie says. “How do we streamline the process to make sure some of the most vulnerable people in our society get fed every day?”
