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SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Twenty-eight schools and 16 businesses and community partners battled in Ozarks Food Harvest’s fifth annual school food drive competition, Food Fight, collecting over 36,000 pounds of donations which will provide more than 30,000 meals to hungry children, families and seniors this holiday season.

This year, the food and funds collected was sent directly to Ozarks Food Harvest’s partner food pantries in Greene County, including four SPS school pantries.

“Springfield Public Schools is delighted to partner again with Ozarks Food Harvest for Food Fight 2015,” said Marty Moore, executive director of Learning Support and Partnerships at SPS. “It’s fun to watch the friendly rivalry across the district, but the real winners are the food pantries that benefit our SPS students, including those at Central High School, Hillcrest High School, Kickapoo High School and Study Alternative Center.”

SPS students have collected nearly 94,000 pounds of donations for The Food Bank since the competition began in 2010.

“It’s wonderful to see SPS students help fight hunger in the Ozarks through Food Fight each year,” said Denise Gibson, director of Development and Communication at Ozarks Food Harvest. “Many of the programs at Ozarks Food Harvest focus on feeding children, and we are always proud to see the students donate to The Food Bank to help fellow students in need.”

The Food Fight champion in the middle school category is the Health Sciences Academy at Mercy. Hillcrest High School is the Food Fight champion in the high school category. These schools will be awarded traveling trophies. Carver Middle School stands out as an overall record-breaker, collecting 4,214 pounds of food, which is the highest number of pounds collected by any school in the history of the Food Fight competition. This school will be presented a non-traveling fork trophy.

The four elementary schools with classes winning field trips to Ozarks Food Harvest to see first-hand how food donations are processed are Campbell, Pittman, Pleasant View and Rountree.

This was the second year Food Fight allowed Partners in Education to serve as collection points for schools in their neighborhoods. The Partners in Education that helped raise food and funds for the schools included Little Caesars locations on Republic, Glenstone, Kearney and Scenic, Murney Associates, Commercial Insurance Underwriters, SPS Early Childhood Special Education, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks, Palen Music Center, FedEx Ground, Stalnaker Boys And Girls Club, Burrell Behavioral Health, Macedonia Baptist Church, Jarden Plastics Solutions, Shady Dell Early Childhood Center and Phelps Center for Gifted Education.

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About Ozarks Food Harvest–The Food Bank

Ozarks Food Harvest is the Feeding America food bank for southwest Missouri, serving 200 organizations across 28 Ozarks counties. The Food Bank distributes 14 million meals—or more than 16 million pounds—annually to more than 260,000 unduplicated individuals. Learn more at ozarksfoodharvest.org, facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest or twitter.com/ozksfoodharvest.