Here’s how we know the power of partnership with our network of 270 faith-based and community charities: We’re better together. Partner pantries like the Mountain Grove Love Center have worked with Ozarks Food Harvest for decades through the highs and lows of the fight the end hunger. Through this partnership, the Love Center has grown to provide food assistance to more than 500 people monthly. But like The Food Bank, the Mountain Grove Love Center didn’t start out where they are now.
This summer, we’re celebrating seven generous volunteers who’ve been selected for their passion and dedication to be a part of Ozarks Food Harvest’s new Volunteer Ambassador Program!
Ozarks Food Harvest is looking for sponsors for the 26th annual Hungerthon this September, hosted by iHeartRadio Springfield. This annual radio-thon is The Food Bank’s largest fundraiser for the Weekend Backpack Program, which provides children facing hunger with a bag of nutritious meals and snacks to take home each weekend.
Did you know nearly 1 out of every 4 meals distributed by Ozarks Food Harvest last year was provided by federal nutrition programs? This is important to know because Congress is revisiting the Farm Bill that funds these programs this year.
According to Feeding America’s latest Map the Meal Gap study, hunger across our 28-county service area has increased from 1 in 7 children and adults to 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults. That’s a dramatic shift in just one year.
In 2020, the COVID-19 crisis revealed the prevalence of child hunger in Missouri when school buildings closed and thousands of children were suddenly faced with losing the breakfasts and lunches they relied on at school. We learned that households with children worry about how to make ends meet when kids aren’t in school and got a better look at the challenges long breaks, like summertime, pose for families facing hunger. Many of Ozarks Food Harvest’s partner charities made changes during the pandemic that have lasted to this day – like Community Outreach Ministries (COM) in Bolivar, who added a kids’ summer lunch program to their services that is now entering its fourth summer.
Fifty-eight % of children in Seymour’s school district receive free and reduced-price meals at school, but for many students, meals aren’t a guarantee when they go home. For families who are worried about making ends meet, Seymour YMCA provides out-of-school meals for children to reassure families that their kids are being nourished.
When Judy Willis retired, she knew she wanted to get out there and do something. “I look around and I just think, golly, there’s just so much people could do if they would just do it,” she said. So, when Judy found out she could use her gardening hobby to help feed her community, that’s exactly what she did.
