River Valley Food 4 Kids | Our Programs

Our Programs

The Summer Food 4 Kids Program provides weekly food assistance to children across the River Valley to help bridge the gap between school years when school cafeterias are unavailable.

Each child receives enough food for two meals per day, including items like cereal, peanut butter, tuna, crackers, fresh produce, and healthy snacks.

In 2023, we proudly provided over 137,000 meals to children during their summer break, ensuring they had the nutrition they needed to thrive.

During the school year, RVF4K operates the Weekend Backpack Program to serve nearly 1,200 children each week across the Russellville, Atkins, Pottsville, Dover, and Hector School Districts.

Backpacks are filled with kid-friendly meal items like mac and cheese and ramen, and healthy snacks, fruits, vegetables, and more, ensuring children have access to meals over the weekend when school cafeterias are closed.

This program helps provide stability and nourishment for children in need throughout the school year.

Holiday Helper is a crucial event that ensures children in the River Valley have access to nutritious meals during the two-week holiday break from school.

This festive event is a mock supermarket-style distribution where families can come together and choose the items to create their holiday celebration meals.

In 2023, Holiday Helper provided over 40,000 meals to 1,000 children in our community.

Our Pantry Program ensures that no child in the Arkansas River Valley goes hungry, including homeschooled children and those living outside Pope County.

Each child receives their own bag filled with items similar to those in our Backpack Program, along with larger household essentials as available.

By expanding our reach, we’re supporting more children and families in building stronger, healthier futures—one meal at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ages do you serve?

We serve school-age kids from 2 to 18 years old, with a couple of important notes:

An 18-year-old must still be enrolled in school to qualify, high school or equivalent.
A 2-year-old cannot be the oldest child in the home to qualify.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide services for infants or very young toddlers at this time.

Are there income requirements?

Yes. We follow the same income guidelines as SNAP/EBT; you do not need to be enrolled in SNAP to qualify for our programs.

Here are the maximum gross monthly household income limits for October 2026-September 2027:

Household size/ Tamaño del hogar
(including ALL adults & children) Maximum Monthly Income/ Ingreso Mensual Máximo

(incluyendo adultos & niños)
2 $2,292
3 $2,888
4 $3,483
5 $4,079
6 $4,675
7 $5,271

8 $5,867

9 $6,463

10 $7,059

Count all adults and children in your household when determining your household size. You may be asked to provide proof of income at registration.

What kind of identification do I need to bring during registration?

The parent/guardian or authorized adult needs to bring a PHOTO ID plus ONE FORM of accepted child identification (per child):

Birth Certificate
Social Security Card
Passport
Medicaid Card
ARKids Card
School Report Card
Student ID Badge
Or Anything comparable with their name and date of birth

Do I need to register every year?

Yes! Even if you've participated in an RVF4K program before, every household must register for each program each year. Registration is first-come, first-served.

I'm caring for foster kids, grandchildren, or other family members' children. Can they participate?

Yes! Children in your care are welcome in our programs. Here's what you need to know:

The legal guardian must be the adult who registers the household.
A temporary guardian, such as a grandparent or family caregiver, can be listed as an authorized pickup adult on the registration form.
You may be asked to bring court documents or other legal records showing proof of guardianship.

If you're unsure whether your situation qualifies, please use the Contact Us form to reach out. We're happy to help figure it out together!

Can I pick up for someone else?

You can pick up for another family if you are listed as an authorized adult on their registration form — but you cannot pick up for their household and yours at the same time. Multiple adults in the same vehicle may each pick up for their own household separately.

How does my child enroll in the Backpack Program?

To enroll your child in the weekend Backpack Program in Pope County, speak with your child's counselor directly. Each school's counselor manages enrollment and communicates the number of participating kids directly to us. We then provide food to each school based on that count.

Please note that while we partner with local schools to distribute food, River Valley Food 4 Kids is a completely independent, community-supported nonprofit food pantry. We are not affiliated with, funded by, or operated by any school district in Pope County or the Arkansas River Valley. Our programs exist entirely because of the generosity of donors, sponsors, and community partners right here in the Arkansas River Valley.

Where do you source your food items from?

We source our menu items in 4 main ways:

Direct purchases from grocery stores and retailers
Product donations from food manufacturers like Tyson Foods and Ralston Rice
In-kind donations from our community — cereal drives, food drives at churches, local businesses, civic organizations, and individual donors
Our partnership with the Arkansas Foodbank in Little Rock

A large portion of what we receive through the Arkansas Foodbank comes from something called food reclamation. This can happen in a few different ways: a brand updating its packaging needs old designs off store shelves, a product past its manufacturer's expiration date gets pulled from retail but is still perfectly safe to eat, or a supplier has more product than they can move and donates it rather than letting it go to waste. In every case, good food finds its way to families who need it rather than going into a landfill.

We follow safe consume-by guidelines provided by the Arkansas Foodbank, of which we are a partner agency. The Arkansas Foodbank operates under Feeding America, the organization overseeing all 200 food banks in the United States. We follow these nationwide standards strictly, and we taste-test items approaching their consume-by date before they ever go out.

Click on the link to see the Shelf-Life Determination Table.

We respect your decision as a parent — you know your kids best. If you receive something you'd prefer not to use, you're always welcome to pass it along to someone in your community who could use it.

You may occasionally notice items with descriptions or ingredients written in another language. That simply reflects where certain products were sourced or manufactured. Everything we receive from the Arkansas Foodbank is either delivered to us or picked up directly in Little Rock — at no shipping cost to us.

How is River Valley Food 4 Kids funded?

River Valley Food 4 Kids is 100% community supported. We do not receive federal, state, city, county, municipal, or school district funding for any of our programs. Every meal we provide exists because of the generosity of this community.

Our funding comes from individual donors (34.1%), sponsors (25.1%), in-kind donations (22.9%), and grants (17.9%). This includes sponsorships from corporations and local businesses, in-kind donations from food drives, food manufacturers, and retailers, grants from foundations, and giving bodies like River Valley United Way.

Every dollar donated stays local, supporting kids in the River Valley community.