Soup for the Soul

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families’ annual event serves soup to the community while it raises money to serve solutions to struggling Arkansas families

BY DWAIN HEBDA

When it comes to protecting and enhancing quality of life for Arkansas families from one end of the state to the other, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is always ready to answer the call.

The organization serves as an advocate on behalf of children and families on issues ranging from access to health care, to quality of education, to working for wage equality among low-income workers.

“Arkansas Advocates speaks for the needs of Arkansas’s children and we work to impact policies that will help them lead healthy lives,” said Fran Carter, AADF Development Director. “The organization does data-driven research, so we offer Arkansas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle access to nonpartisan data and analysis and support for solutions that will work the best for Arkansas children and families.”

AADF’s accomplishments in this effort include the creation of the ARKids First health insurance program, expansion of quality pre-K for at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds, and overhauling the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, to name just a few.

Speaking up on behalf of children and families, especially in disenfranchised and underserved communities, is a task that never ends. Each year brings with it a new challenge or initiative, such as the 2020 Census, for which AADF is working to promote through various community organizations.

“We want to make sure everyone in Arkansas knows they need to count their children and grandchildren and all the people living in their home when they get their census questionnaire,” Carter said. “Filling it out completely versus leaving people out impacts a lot of money for our state. We really need to do a good job, all of us as Arkansas citizens, to count everybody.

“Children are traditionally an under-counted population and we want people to understand the census doesn’t just mean a number, it means money for the state.”

As a nonpartisan organization, AADF receives no state or federal funding from public tax dollars, but instead relies on donations to operate. Soup Sunday, it's main fundraiser of the year, is a long-cherished tradition in Arkansas and an important source of funding for programs.

“Soup Sunday is a fun, family-friendly event filled with music, food and activities for children, and beer and wine for adults,” Carter said. “At the Little Rock event there will be probably close to 1,500 people over the span of three hours. We are proud of the event because the event is one that everybody can come to. Every kind of group and every kind of person can come and have a good time at this event.”

Kim Davis and her husband, Ryan, are co-chairs for this year’s Soup Sunday. The Little Rock couple and their three daughters are longtime supporters of the event, and Ryan sits on the group’s executive board. So when they were asked to lead the fundraiser, the answer was an immediate “yes.”

“I didn’t have any hesitation being the co-chair because I knew the fundraising was going toward a good cause,” Kim said, adding the participation of her daughters in the effort made the honor even more special.

“Our girls love Soup Sunday and they look forward to it every year, especially our 10-year-old,” Davis said. “She has an interest in being a chef. She likes tasting all the soups. And after Soup Sunday, she likes to go to the restaurants that she sampled soup from.

“More than that, my husband is an associate pastor at the church that we attend. Something he always tells our girls is to do justice, love mercy and walk with humility. We have connected that with the work Arkansas Advocates does. [Our daughters] know Soup Sunday is a fun day, but it’s also a day of helping children like themselves.”