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SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— A Springfield tattoo parlor will donate 75 percent of its December 21 and 22 proceeds to Boyd Elementary School, where more than 50 percent of the children are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.

Mr. Freak’s Tattoos, 565 North West Bypass, is holding its holiday benefit from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The tattoo parlor is also collecting toys and coats for the students at Boyd Elementary School and nonperishable food items for Ozarks Food Harvest.

Boyd Elementary is one of 25 area schools who benefit from Ozarks Food Harvest’s Food for Thought backpack program, which provides severely at-risk children with a backpack filled with nutritious child-friendly foods to take home on the weekends, when they might otherwise go hungry.

The program started in 2005, and is designed to help students get food assistance without drawing any attention to them by using backpacks that look like any other students’ backpack.

The Food Bank currently provides more than 600 children with backpacks every weekend through 25 schools.

According to Ozarks Food Harvest, 150,000 people live in poverty in the Ozarks, and 50,000 are children. The Food Bank distributes nearly five million pounds of food annually to its network of 323 hunger relief agencies across 29 Ozarks counties. Ozarks Food Harvest also offers direct relief through its Kids Cafe, Food for Thought, and Mobile Food Pantry programs.

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