$15M in Walton family grants fuel culinary expansion at Ark. college

Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville will expand its culinary arts and hospitality management course offerings through three grants from the Walton Family Foundation totaling $15 million.

The money will help fund new facilities, programming, professional development and equipment, as well as a new program identity and new leadership. The college also announced it hired Glenn R. Mack as its first executive director of culinary arts to oversee the expansion.

Pending approval, the culinary program will move from the Center for Nonprofits at St. Mary’s in nearby Rogers to a 27,000-square-foot former industrial plant in Bentonville.

In 2013, NWACC hired New York-based food and agriculture consultant firm Karp Resources to create a strategic plan for the new program. Mack said the study found food and hospitality jobs represent more than 28,800 positions in the state and that number is expected to increase 10 percent over the next decade.

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