Media

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— With some local assistance, Ozarks Food Harvest will now be able to offer those in need near Lebanon six more chances to stock their pantries.

The Lelia Heuer Foundation will provide funding to The Food Bank so it can make six Mobile Food Pantry stops in the Lebanon area.  Each stop provides more than 7,500 pounds of food assistance.

The partnership will begin this month and will continue for six months, with one stop per month.

Five Lebanon organizations will help with the distributions and will pre-qualify applicants for the food assistance.  The organizations are COPE, Ministerial Alliance, Crosslines of Lebanon, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Heuer Foundation board members say they’re hoping this partnership with Ozarks Food Harvest will encourage others in the community to step forward to help meet the needs of the growing unemployed population in Laclede County.  Since 1996, the foundation has distributed more than $841,000 to area nonprofits.

Furthermore, Mary Young, Executive Director of COPE, will hold a press conference on Thursday, March 12^th to discuss the increase in demand for assistance in the Lebanon area.  Young will be available at 11 a.m. at the Lebanon Civic Center, located at 500 E. Elm Street.

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About Ozarks Food Harvest—The Food Bank
Ozarks Food Harvest works with more than 350 hunger relief organizations, reaching upwards of 53,000 people each month in 29 southwest Missouri counties. Ozarks Food Harvest distributes more than 5 million pounds of food annually to its network of agencies and offers direct relief through its Kids Cafe®, Food for Thought™, Club F.U.N.™ and Mobile Food Pantry™ programs.