Just in time for Easter, Ozarks Food Harvest received a donation of 151,200 eggs from Opal Foods, headquartered in Neosho. The Food Bank has received half a million eggs from Opal Foods since the partnership began in 2008.
The Musgrave Foundation granted a total of $120,000 to select Ozarks Food Harvest partners in February. The funding will be utilized for food for local hunger-relief efforts. The regional food bank, the umbrella organization of more than 200 pantries and programs, will leverage the $120,000 to $1.2 million in food distribution.
Eighty grocery stores partnered with Ozarks Food Harvest during the holidays to help Check Out Hunger, collecting a record $49,786 in check-out lanes across the Ozarks.
Area Boy Scouts will go door-to-door to collect nonperishable food items for Ozarks Food Harvest beginning March 14. The 26th annual Scouting for Food drive will wrap-up with a one-day collection at Walmart Supercenter locations in Springfield, Ozark and Joplin.
Community members can either donate in grocery sacks left on their door, or donors can give at a local Walmart on March 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.