When Julie lost her job in college admissions, and her husband went on disability after suffering an injury as a construction worker, eight-year-old Hailey was the most sensitive to the fact that her family was going through a hard time.
“Hailey is the one who watched me going through a huge binder of all our utility bills, credit card and mortgage statements, methodically calling each company to see who could work with us, as our savings dwindled,” Julie shared.
Springfield Public Schools will participate in Ozarks Food Harvest’s 5th annual district-wide Food Fight competition October 12-31, with a goal of 45,000 pounds to beat last year’s total of 39,450 pounds of donations.
Food Fight is a food and fund drive competition among Springfield Public Schools with Partners in Education. The mission ofthe Food Fight competition is to raise hunger awareness across the district and stock community and school pantry shelves for the holiday season.
At Ozarks Food Harvest, we understand the power of a $1 donation. Consider that every dollar donated is stretched to provide $10 worth of food to our neighbors in need.
That’s why we’re thrilled to once again take part in the Walmart Hunger Challenge.
If you’re new to The Food Bank or haven’t heard of this grant, let me tell you more about it. For the past six years, the Walmart Foundation State Giving Program has awarded a grant to Ozarks Food Harvest to provide funding for our agencies. Those agencies then fundraise to receive the grant as a match. For instance, if we select one pantry to receive $5,000, the pantry raises an additional $5,000 to receive the full matching grant.
The second annual Empty Bowls to benefit Ozarks Food Harvest raised over $5,000 to provide 25,000 meals to hungry children, families and seniors in southwest Missouri!
The regional food bank partnered with Panera Bread to offer a bowl handcrafted by a local artist, as well as soup and bread, in exchange for cash donations.
Annual radio-thon helps support 416 children on the Backpack Program
Ozarks Food Harvest and iHeartMedia’s 17th annual radio-thon, Hungerthon, raised $125,380 to support 416 children on the Weekend Backpack Program. The program provides hungry children with nutritious, child-friendly food items to take home over the weekends.
Kevin Howard and Liz Delany of 105.9 KGBX hosted the four day radio-thon. Since 1999, nearly $1.5 million has been raised through Hungerthon. This year, Hungerthon moved from Alice 95.5 to 105.9 KGBX.
Greetings from the O’Reilly Center for Hunger Relief!
Since Ozarks Food Harvest moved into its distribution center six years ago, incredible progress has been made in getting more food to people who need it most.
As Bart shared with you this summer, Ozarks Food Harvest is now distributing over 1.1 million meals every month to children, families and seniors in the Ozarks. That’s a record number of meals, and I’m proud to say that the capacity provided by the O’Reilly Center of Hunger Relief has played a big role in allowing distribution to grow.
Food Bank staff share with me that clients’ most requested items are fruits and vegetables, followed by protein items like meat and dairy — donations that require ample cooler and freezer space.
This year’s Hunger Action Month was one of the best yet. We had more outreach and fundraising events than ever before, and you really stepped up to help Ozarks Food Harvest.
Our friends at iHeartMedia did an incredible job with Hungerthon, new to 105.9 KGBX this year. It was certainly a highlight of Hunger Action Month. Over $125,000 was raised for the Weekend Backpack Program to give area children food over the weekend when school lunches aren’t available and they might otherwise go hungry. Over the four day ratio-thon, I watched Kevin and Liz put in long hours sharing with listeners exactly why it is so crucial that they donate to this program.
It’s partners like this that make raising awareness of the issue of hunger possible. At Ozarks Food Harvest, we work every day to feed people across 28 Missouri counties, and community support is imperative to be able to grow much-needed food assistance programs.
Over 500 hours of service was donated to Ozarks Food Harvest by 325 volunteers, providing 55,000 meals to children, families and seniors in need during the 23rd Annual United Way Day of Caring.
Over 20,000 pounds of food was sorted in The Food Bank’s Volunteer Center, 1,442 Senior Food boxes were assembled, almost 2,000 pounds of food and $1,103 was collected during food drives, 77 pounds of produce was gleaned from Ozarks Food Harvest’s garden and area children wrote 632 notes of encouragement to fellow students who receive weekend food bags.