UAMS’ CAREfully Catered Tosses Salad for Grand Opening
| LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey tossed a healthy salad instead of cutting a ribbon today to announce the grand opening of CAREfully Catered, a new catering business affiliated with the CAREfully Catered specializes in healthy food and is staffed by women who have overcome addictions. It is a nonprofit organization created to support Arkansas CARES (Center for Addictions Research, Education, and Services), a residential substance abuse treatment program for mothers and their children. Arkansas CARES is a program of the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. “We are excited about CAREfully Catered and grateful for the diverse partners that have come together to support healthy changes in individuals and in our community,” said Cindy Crone, director of Arkansas CARES. “CAREfully Catered is helping mothers in recovery learn marketable skills while providing all of us a convenient way to obtain tasty, nutritious meals and help a worthwhile cause in our community.” CAREfully Catered prepares healthy foods for its customers, employs and trains mothers who have successfully overcome addictions and provides scholarships and training in the culinary arts in collaboration with the Arkansas Culinary School of Apprenticeship. CAREfully Catered is funded in part by a four-year grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, matched by tax deductible contributions from local donors. Christ Episcopal Church has donated the use of its kitchen for food preparation and office space. UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has more than 2,320 students and 690 residents and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in UAMS centers of excellence are the