The story began through a connection made by Brenda Williams, Healthy Foods Coordinator with CU’s Community Sustainability Team. Williams met Pastor Todd through the University of the Ozarks’ Town Square Collaborative, a regional initiative that supports rural congregations as they address local challenges.

As Williams and Pastor Todd talked, one need kept rising to the surface: food insecurity among elementary students in Stuttgart and the broader Arkansas Delta.

Pastor Todd shared that the church had already been supporting children through snacks and special events, but funding limited how often they could help. The church’s outreach — including back-to-school giveaways and Trunk or Treat events — revealed just how many families were struggling.

“We’re trying to meet children where they are. Food is energy for the body. When kids have healthy food, they sleep better, think better, and perform better — both at school and at home.”

Pastor Laura Todd, Grand Avenue United Methodist Church, Stuttgart, Arkansas

In Searcy, located in White County in central Arkansas, a growing partnership is working to address a need many communities face: making sure students have enough to eat outside of school.

Through Communities Unlimited’s (CU) Community Sustainability work, Facilitator and Healthy Foods Coordinator Brenda Williams has spent the past several months bringing people together — starting with conversations.

Working through the Town Square Collaborative — a program that supports rural communities by equipping local leaders and congregations to address community needs — Williams facilitated meetings with local leaders, congregations, and school representatives to better understand the challenges facing families in Searcy.

“It has helped us feel like we are on the path that is sustainable to doing the good that we seek to do as a community.”

The Rev. Michael Bolin, First United Methodist Church, Searcy, AR

It started with a conversation at the right moment. At a Rural Ideas Conference hosted by the Town Square Collaborative at the University of the Ozarks in nearby Clarksville, Chantel Poor, a Facilitator with Communities Unlimited (CU) from the Sustainability Team, met Johnny Everette, a lifelong Morrilton resident, city councilman, discipleship pastor at Union Baptist Church, and President of the CommUNITY Hearts in Action Leadership Team.

The Town Square Collaborative, a CU partner, works with rural congregations and their leaders to address community needs, rooted in the idea that local churches are often the most trusted, most connected institutions in a small town, and that lasting change tends to run through them.

“I just kept being drawn back to Communities Unlimited,” Everette said.

CU and Morrilton connected and are now collaborating. As the first step in the process, Poor guided local residents through a structured, community-driven effort designed to surface priorities from the ground up.

“I just hope it shows the life that is actually there. If that pocket park can be a hub where people come together, maybe drink a coffee and talk, maybe a college student finds a quiet place to stay, I think that’s the start of something

Johnny Everette