Doing Good: Girl collects thousands of cereal boxes to fight food insecurity

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A young girl is helping fight food insecurity in Northwest Arkansas.

Rows of cereal boxes fill the shelves at Life Source in Fayetteville, with more options than can be found in the aisle of a grocery store. But these shelves were stocked thanks to the help of Miss Heart of Arkansas Preteen Jessica Bowser.

“I just hope I get to feed as many people as possible,” she said.

For the third year, she is running a cereal drive to try and feed Northwest Arkansas.

“Arkansas is the number one state with food insecurity and so many parents out here have to make a decision whether to put food on their plate or to pay the bills so I just want it to be our job for them to know that they can have something to eat the next day,” Bowser said.

Bowser’s even gotten some of the biggest brands to buy in. 4,300 boxes came straight from Kellogs this year. Other donors include General Mills and Post.

“It makes me feel so amazing just to see as many donations that are coming in because, over the last three years, I have donated over 30,000 cereal boxes,” Bowser said.

From here, the cereal will all go to food pantries at Treehouse , Outback and Life Source.

“It’s huge. Realistically, cereal is one of the items that’s harder to come by because when people think food drive they think canned goods and sometimes dried goods too. They don’t think about cereal or anything like that,” Life Source executive director Jimmie Conduff said.

But he says cereal can make a big difference.

“To be able to get a box of cereal, well that covers at least two meals if they’re a family of four. If they’re a family of two or just a single person then that covers them for several meals. It’s a huge help. It’s exciting to be able to give those cereal boxes out,” Conduff said.

Through that lens, Jessica has provided more than 100,000 meals over the years.

“I just really think it’s a big thing for me to see all of these families get to have something to eat,” Bowser said.

By the time the drive ended this year, Bowser had collected more than 13,000 cereal boxes.

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