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St. Susanne Catholic Church in Mt. Vernon partners with OFH for Senior Food Box Program

January 15, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— St. Susanne Catholic Church is the newest Ozarks Food Harvest Senior Food Box Program site, helping serve low-income Lawrence County seniors with nutritious food. Ozarks Food Harvest’s Senior Food Box Program supplements the diets of low-income seniors with nutritious USDA commodity foods at 16 locations across 14 southwest Missouri counties.

Each month, Ozarks Food Harvest is able to provide 1,912 income-eligible seniors — ages 60 or older — with healthy food by working with senior centers and low-income senior housing facilities. St. Susanne, one of Ozarks Food Harvest’s 200 partner pantries in 28 Missouri counties, will now see 36 of these boxes each month to help serve low-income seniors in Lawrence County. The boxes will provide 1,008 pounds of food monthly.

Lawrence County seniors interested in participating in the program can sign up at St. Susanne Catholic Church in Mt. Vernon on the third Wednesday of the month from 10 to 11 a.m. The food pantry is also open the Monday of the same week from 6 to 7 p.m.

The senior food boxes will be distributed at the church located at 700 W. Sloan & Hwy. V in Mt. Vernon. The first Senior Food Box distribution will be Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 10 a.m.

The food boxes provide a good source of nutrients typically lacking in the diets of low-income seniors, including items such as canned vegetables and fruits, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, cereal, milk, cheese, rice and pasta. Annually, nearly 23,000 boxes are assembled solely by Ozarks Food Harvest volunteers and distributed by The Food Bank. This number is down from 24,000 one year ago due to federal cuts.

For questions regarding the distribution of senior food boxes at St. Susanne’s, contact Josephine Evatt at (417) 466-7536. To learn more about Ozarks Food Harvest’s Senior Food Box Program, contact OFH Member Services Director Mary Zumwalt at (417) 865-3411.

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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 10 million meals annually to 170,000 unduplicated individuals. OFH celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2013 and received its second consecutive Four-Star Charity Navigator rating the same year. Learn more at ozarksfoodharvest.org, facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest or twitter.com/ozksfoodharvest.