News

Ozarks Food Harvest took several opportunities to invest in our community over the past fiscal year, which ran from July 2021 to June 2022. I want to take a moment to reflect on what we were able to accomplish with your partnership.

In the past year we made the following investments, including:

• Provided 20 million meals through our network of community and faith-based charities across a third of the state of Missouri
• Served 50,000 unduplicated children, families and seniors each month
• Distributed more than 900,000 meals through Mobile Food Pantries to help feed individuals in rural areas facing hunger
• Distributed more than 23 million pounds of food, including 4.2 million pounds of fresh produce
• Rescued 7 million pounds of edible food from being wasted through the Retail Pick-Up program
• Awarded $1 million in grants to our network to help sustain and expand hunger-relief efforts across Southwest Missouri

As we press through the rest of 2022, we remain focused on making the additional investments needed to fix our community’s food system so that children, families and seniors know where they’ll get their next meal. It’s a responsibility that falls to Ozarks Food Harvest as we now supply seven out of every ten meals distributed by our network of hunger-relief charities spread across a 28-county service area.

Our work has been more important than ever as folks continue to deal with inflation and increased prices for food. There are still too many people without enough to eat. Ozarks Food Harvest is responding to this need with determination. Here’s what we’re doing:

• Increasing food deliveries through our Mobile Food Pantry program to assist families and seniors living in underserved and rural areas of southwest Missouri.
• Growing our Retail Pick-Up program. The Food Bank coordinates with more than 140 grocers every week to rescue fresh produce, frozen meat, dairy and other goods that might otherwise go to waste.
• Increasing production and distribution of locally grown, nutrient-dense food through our Full Circle Gardens program. Focusing on sustainability, composting and volunteer education.

Ozarks Food Harvest is here to provide hope to the communities we serve, but we can’t do it alone. We need your help to continue investing in our community’s food system so folks in the Ozarks don’t have to struggle just to put a meal on the table. Please consider donating today and be a part of our efforts to strengthen our community and end hunger in the Ozarks.