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The Food Bank of North Central Arkansas plans to build a greenhouse on the lot next to its Highland Circle headquarters after the Mountain Home City Council rezoned the property and cleared it for crop farming.
The council adopted the ordinance Sept. 17 on a 7-0 vote, with Council member Susan Stockton absent. It moves the lot at Highland Parkway and Highland Circle from Commercial C-2 to Commercial C-2A and grants a variance for agricultural production, including crop farming and greenhouse operations.
Council members suspended the rules to read the ordinance three times in one night and attached the city’s emergency clause, putting it into effect immediately. According to the meeting minutes, the greenhouse project prompted the move off C-2, a zoning classification the city no longer uses.
Food Bank CEO Jeff Quick presented the request to the Planning Commission on Sept. 14, where it passed 5-0 before heading to the council.
The greenhouse builds on the Food Bank’s hunger gardens program. In November 2024, the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas gave the Food Bank a $40,000 grant to expand the program in Baxter County, with the money set aside for compost stations, raised beds, rain harvesting systems and the completion of a greenhouse.
“We look forward to the expansion of our hunger gardens program,” Quick said when the grant was announced.
At that presentation, the Rev. Mackey Yokem noted that Arkansas has the highest food insecurity rate in the nation. Searcy County, inside the Food Bank’s nine-county service area, has the highest rate in the state.
Fresh produce has become a bigger part of the Food Bank’s work. Last fall it offered $50 farmers market vouchers to eligible seniors through the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, good for locally grown fruits, vegetables, herbs and honey.
The Food Bank, founded in 1982, distributes about 4.5 million pounds of food a year through food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, backpack programs and summer meal programs. It serves roughly 20,000 people a month across north central Arkansas.
The Food Bank is located at 1042 Highland Circle in Mountain Home. More information is available at foodbanknca.org or by calling 870-499-7565.
