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SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Ozarks Food Harvest received a $1,000 gift from Metropolitan National Bank (MNB) this month to help support the food bank’s fastest growing program, its weekend backpack program, Food for Thought™, which provides severely at-risk children with a backpack filled with nutritious child-friendly food for them to take home on the weekends, when they might otherwise go hungry.

The program is designed to allow students to get the assistance without drawing any attention to themselves by using backpacks, which look like any other student’s backpack. During the 2006-2007 school year, nearly 7,800 backpacks were filled. The food bank will administer Food for Thought™ in 25 area schools during the upcoming school year – schools with poverty rates of 50% and greater.

MNB and CEO Dave Tooley and employees presented a check to Ozarks Food Harvest on Sunday, August 12, at “MetroNite @ Hammons Field,” where the bank offered drawstring backpacks for the first 1,000 Springfield Cardinals fans.

Metropolitan National Bank is one of the largest independently-owned banks in southwest Missouri with 12 banking centers throughout a seven-county region. Metropolitan’s newest banking center on East Battlefield Road in Springfield opened August 6, 2007.

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To learn more, contact Lindsey Neddenriep at (417) 865-3411.