News

Over the last year, Ozarks Food Harvest provided 23 million meals through our network of faith-based and community charities across southwest Missouri.

Thanks to supporters like you, from July 2024 to June 2025, we:
• served 70,000 children, families and seniors each month;
• distributed nearly 690,000 meals throughout southwest Missouri via Mobile Food Pantries to help feed our neighbors facing hunger in rural communities;
• distributed more than 26 million pounds of food, including 16 million pounds of fresh, perishable foods like eggs, meat, fruits and vegetables;
• rescued 8.2 million pounds of edible food from being sent to the landfill through our Retail Pick-up Program;
• awarded nearly $264,000 in grants to our network to help sustain and expand hunger-relief efforts across southwest Missouri.

Despite these successes, families in southwest Missouri are still facing hunger, especially with rising childcare, housing and food costs. According to Feeding America’s most recent Map the Meal Gap study, 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults experience food insecurity in Ozarks Food Harvest’s service area.

That means we still have work to do. It’s a responsibility that falls to Ozarks Food Harvest as we supply 7 out of every 10 meals distributed by our network of hunger-relief charities spread across a 28-county service area.

As the demand for food increases across the Ozarks, we will continue to invest in our community’s food system so that children, families and seniors know where they’ll get their next meal. These investments include:
• Distribute nearly 25 million meals to our hunger-relief network of 270 faith-based and community partner charities.
• Rescue 600 semi-truck loads from being wasted annually through our Retail Pickup Program. In addition to aiding with hunger-relief efforts, these efforts will save the City of Springfield around $320,000 in landfill costs.
• Distribute more than 900,000 meals to neighbors facing hunger through our Mobile Food Pantries.
• Provide more than 60,000 backpacks full of nutritious food through our Weekend Backpack Program to more than 1,600 children in nearly 60 schools across 17 counties in southwest Missouri.

We’re committed to ending hunger in our community, but we can’t do it without you. Ninety-six cents of every dollar donated goes directly to feeding families, so you can trust that we’re good stewards of your gifts. Please consider a donation to Ozarks Food Harvest today to help provide meals to people facing hunger across southwest Missouri.