Media

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Next week marks National Food Bank Week recognizing food banks across the country for addressing the issue of hunger in America.

Ozarks Food Harvest’s executive director, Bart Brown, asks for people to reach out to their Senators and urge them to support sufficient new funding for the Farm Bill nutrition title so that critical nutrition programs, like the Food Stamp Program, TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) and CSFP (Commodities Supplemental Food Program), receive additional resources.

According to the nation’s food bank network, America’s Second Harvest, the Nutrition title is two-thirds of the total farm bill spending, and food stamps make up most of the nutrition title. America’s Second Harvest said a 2006 study by USDA’s Economic Research Service found that 11 percent of U.S. households were food insecure in 2005. The network also states that the average food stamp recipient is a single working mother with two children and that 50 percent of all food stamp participants are under 18, with half of all households including one child.

Every year, America’s Second Harvest’s member food banks provide food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

Locally, Ozarks Food Harvest serves 323 hunger relief agencies in 29 southwest Missouri counties – reaching 37,000 individuals every month.

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