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Sixty Ozarks grocers to ask customers to add $1 for Ozarks Food Harvest

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Sixty local grocery stores in nearly 40 communities will participate in the thirteenth annual Check Out Hunger campaign — Nov. 15 through Dec. 31 — to help feed the 20,000 people Ozarks Food Harvest’s network of charities serves weekly across 28 Missouri counties.

Check Out Hunger gives shoppers the opportunity to add a $1 tax-free donation to their bill when checking out at local Ozarks grocers including Akin’s, Bistro Market, Country Mart, Dillon Stores, Harter House, Murfin’s Market, Price Cutter, Ramey, Save-A-Lot, Smillie’s, Smitty’s, Summer Fresh and Woods Supermarket.

Shoppers will find displays in the check-out lanes at their local grocery stores. When a shopper chooses to add a donation of choice to his or her grocery bill, the cashier simply scans the donation barcode and the donor signs a donor card for display. The donation is added to the bill and appears on the receipt.

The four Springfield Dillon Stores are offering boxes to scan rather than cards; the boxes represent either $5 or $10 worth of food for Ozarks Food Harvest.

“On behalf of our local grocers, we are pleased to help Ozarks Food Harvest feed so many in need this holiday season,” said Bill Smillie, executive director of the Ozark Empire Grocers Association. “Our primary goal in our industry is to provide safe and quality food to the public, and we feel there’s no better organization to support than Ozarks Food Harvest.”

According to Ozarks Food Harvest, nearly 180,000 people are food insecure in the 28 southwest Missouri counties it serves, and one in four children are hungry.

Last year, Ozarks Food Harvest’s Check Out Hunger program raised just over $27,000, nearly double the previous year’s grand total. Since 1998, the holiday campaign has collected more than $172,000 in donations.

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About Ozarks Food Harvest—The Food Bank
Ozarks Food Harvest is the Feeding America food bank for southwest Missouri, serving more than 300 hunger relief organizations across 28 Ozarks counties in addition to long-term relief sites in Joplin. The Food Bank reaches approximately 80,000 individuals monthly and distributes one million pounds of food monthly. OFH was named the 2011 Small Business of the Year by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. Learn more at ozarksfoodharvest.org and at facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest.