Media

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Ozarks Food Harvest and Clear Channel Media and Entertainment’s Alice 95.5’s 14th annual radio-thon, Hungerthon 2012, wrapped up just after 10:00 this morning, collecting a grand total of $125,968 for The Food Bank’s Weekend Backpack Program. The program provides children who rely on free and reduced meals at school with a backpack full of nutritious foods for the weekend.

Alice 95.5 personalities Kevin Howard and Liz Delany hosted Hungerthon, beginning last Friday morning at 6 a.m. outside of the Historic Tower Theater in Springfield. Those involved spent close to 30 hours since last Friday raising money for Ozarks Food Harvest.

This year’s goal of $125,000 was exceeded, providing more than 415 students with Backpack Program food bags.

Several backpacks were matched by community businesses including BKD, LLP, Burgess Hasting & Dunlop CPAs, Dr. Heather Cline and Cline Dental staff, Dr. Frank R. Newman–Mercy, Hiland Dairy Foods, Nancy Jester, Metropolitan National Bank, Ozark Empire Grocers Association, Leslie Peck–Peck’s Insurance & Financial Services, SRC Community Relations Committee, David Taylor–Taylor Communications, Rosalie Wooten and several anonymous donors.

Event sponsors included Family Pharmacy and Sonic. Several local businesses were Power Hour sponsors, including Coyote’s Adobe Café, Marias, Big Whiskey’s, Parlor 88, Dublin’s Pass, Millie’s, McKowen Family Detal, Springfield Family Restaurant, The Wedge, Phoenix Home Healthcare, American Idol “Finalists Live” in Branson and more.

Thirty southwest Missouri schools participate in Ozarks Food Harvest’s Backpack Program, and approximately 30,000 backpacks were distributed last year, which included meals for two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, two snacks and drinks.

KOLR 10 and KOZL also teamed up with Ozarks Food Harvest and Alice 95.5 during Hungerthon to collect food donations from May 29 to June 4. The grand total was 852 pounds.

If community members were unable to participate in the community-wide event June 1-4, pledges can still be made at Ozarks Food Harvest this week or securely online at ozarksfoodharvest.org. For more information, call 417-865-3411. Learn more about the event at alice955.com.

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About Ozarks Food Harvest—The Food Bank
Ozarks Food Harvest is the Feeding America food bank for southwest Missouri, serving 250 hunger relief organizations across 28 Ozarks counties. The Food Bank distributes 12 million pounds of food annually to 170,000 unduplicated individuals. OFH was named the 2011 Small Business of the Year by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, and its facility, the O’Reilly Center for Hunger Relief, recently received a Superior AIB International Food Safety Rating. Learn more at ozarksfoodharvest.org, facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest or twitter.com/ozksfoodharvest.