When is the last time you tasted a cucumber? What about an orange or an apple? For one home-bound Lamar senior, she couldn’t remember the last time she had tasted fresh produce. After a mistake with her normal food delivery service, she travelled to the senior center one Friday afternoon to get food to take home.
Each September, Ozarks Food Harvest celebrates Hunger Action Month, the annual advocacy campaign to raise awareness about hunger in the Ozarks and inspire action in the community – but nothing inspires action quite like the community itself.
The holidays are a time for sharing food and making memories, but for many families in the Ozarks, this time of year can be challenging. Previously, 1 in 7 people were facing hunger in southwest Missouri, but now that number has risen to 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults. That means there’s a good chance you know someone that isn’t sure when they will be eating their next meal – much less a holiday meal.
Thanks to supporters like you, Ozarks Food Harvest provided 21 million meals through our network of faith-based and community charities across a third of the state of Missouri in the past year.
In the past year, The Food Bank’s network of faith-based and community charities served an average of 70,000 individuals every month; that’s 20,000 more than during the height of the COVID crisis. Why do we continue to see more working families in need of assistance when things seem to be back to normal?
You’ve heard the mantra: Knowledge is power. Thousands of kids across the Ozarks went back to school this fall ready to empower themselves with knowledge, but the fact is, children need food to be at their best – and right now, 1 in 5 children are facing hunger across southwest Missouri.
Ozarks Food Harvest volunteer Gary DeHaven spent his career working in bustling news stations across the country, so when he retired in southwest Missouri, he knew he wanted to find a way to give back to the community and keep busy.