Media

WHAT:  Press conference to announce the Roy W. Slusher Foundation’s 2012 hunger relief grant recipients

WHERE:  The Keeter Center at the College of the Ozarks, One Opportunity Avenue, Point Lookout, Mo.

WHEN:  10:00 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Roy W. Slusher Foundation is making sizeable grants, totaling $100,000, to nearly one dozen Stone and Taney County nonprofits at a press conference at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Keeter Center at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout.

The agencies receiving awards are Ozarks Food Harvest member food pantries and other area feeding sites. Ozarks Food Harvest is the regional food bank which distributes 12 million pounds of food annually to 300 nonprofits across 28 southwest Missouri counties. The funding will help feed food insecure individuals in Branson and surrounding communities.

Grantees — who will be distributing food to those in need from their hunger relief agencies — will be present to discuss the increasing demand for food assistance, especially at the beginning of the year when charitable giving decreases after the holiday season. Among those expected to attend include the mayor of Branson, Raeanne Presley.

The distribution from the Slusher Foundation is in addition to their ongoing support of area nonprofit organizations. The Foundation’s board says they hope this additional gift will encourage others in the community to help meet this pressing need.

The Roy W. Slusher Foundation distributed nearly $60,000 to six Ozarks Food Harvest member agencies in the Taney and Stone County area — such as Christian Action Ministries and Christian Associates of Table Rock Lake — in Jan. 2010.

Nora L. Slusher died on August 30, 2011 in Forsyth, Missouri. She was laid to rest next to her beloved late husband, Roy, in McCook, Nebraska. Mr. Slusher passed away in 1987. Mrs. Slusher chaired the Foundation board from its inception to the date of her death. Her thoughtful and courageous leadership encouraged the board to address many of the urgent social needs of the community. She was actively involved in overseeing the distribution of nearly $5 million to non-profit, tax exempt organizations in Taney and Stone Counties in Missouri.

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About Ozarks Food Harvest- The Food Bank
Ozarks Food Harvest is the Feeding America food bank for southwest Missouri, serving approximately 80,000 individuals monthly through its 300 member agencies and direct-service programs. Learn more at ozarksfoodharvest.org and at facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest.