3rd Annual Fall Food & Craft Fair Supports Artisans with Disabilities

3rd Annual Fall Food & Craft Fair Supports Artisans with Disabilities

Governor Asa Hutchinson to Unveil Latest Efforts for Supportive Employment Opportunities

(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) – More than twenty vendors and eight food trucks will fill Main Street on September 28, 2018, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the 3rd annual Fall Food and Craft Fair sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS). It will be held outside the DHS Central Offices in downtown Little Rock and the public is invited to this free event.

Governor Asa Hutchinson also will be at the event starting at 11:30 a.m. to unveil DHS’s latest efforts to offer supportive employment opportunities for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities and a new opportunity to showcase their talents.

All items sold at the fair have been made by clients of the DHS Division of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS). Some of the items include custom-made rugs from Booneville; fresh vegetables grown at Human Development Centers across the state; magnets, birdhouses, holiday wreaths and ornaments, dog treats and brushes, paintings and sculptures, candles, soaps, and more.

Division Director Melissa Stone said the fair provides clients the opportunity to make money by selling the creative things they make and offers the public an opportunity to see how talented these individuals are.

“Both the Food and Craft Fair and the new effort we are unveiling are great opportunities to support these artisans. Our clients feel a lot of pride in what they’ve made, especially when they’re paid for their work and they can interact with the people buying what they made,” Stone said.

The Division provides funding for community and facility-based services to thousands of Arkansans. The Division also operates five residential Human Development Centers in Arkadelphia, Booneville, Conway, Jonesboro, and Warren, which are home to nearly 1,000 clients. The Division’s mission is to work with clients so they can be as independent as possible and have a high quality of life, Stone said.

Some of Arkansas’s best food trucks will be on-site along with the SNAP Mobile unit, which provides free nutrition education and locally grown produce for purchase.

For more information about programs offered through DHS and DDS, visit www.humanservices.arkansas.gov.

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