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“When you pour into your community, you’re pouring into the people you love,” Andrea Mann shared. She’s a solution support analyst at Netsmart, a healthcare software company with the mantra: vision-driven, cause-connected and passionate about opportunity and obligation. Netsmart is living up to that mantra by encouraging employees to give back – and pour into the communities they love.

“We’re all affected by hunger,” said Andrea. “When people aren’t fed, they’re not doing their best and they’re not feeling their best. As a healthcare software company, we try to look at the whole patient. Having food is part of the whole person.”

That’s a big reason why Andrea chooses to spend her 16 hours of allocated volunteer time from Netsmart with Ozarks Food Harvest. She and her coworkers have helped sort donated food at The Food Bank many times, but Andrea’s passion lies in creating Hope Notes for the Weekend Backpack Program.

Hope Notes are a new volunteer opportunity at Ozarks Food Harvest, and Netsmart hasn’t hesitated to help the program thrive. With nearly 70,000 Weekend Backpacks distributed to children each year, it’s The Food Bank’s goal to include an encouraging, hopeful note in every bag so the child receiving it will know their community cares about them. Volunteers help spread hope by getting creative, writing positive messages and drawing fun pictures for the kids.

“When I helped with Hope Notes, I just fell in love with them,” Andrea explained. “I used to work at Nixa Schools, and I know that positive words create positive actions. When you tell a kid they can do something, watch them do it because they’re going to. With Hope Notes, you’re not only feeding children physically, you’re feeding them emotionally.”

Andrea’s passion has even spread to the Netsmart offices. Now, not only do Netsmart employees visit The Food Bank to volunteer, several have incorporated Hope Notes into their meetings and breaks at work. Some even take supplies with them to work on notes at home! To date, Netsmart employees have volunteered nearly 200 hours at The Food Bank and created 500 Hope Notes for kids – and counting!

Andrea shared, “[Ending hunger] takes a village. It’s a big issue. It’s a collective effort.”

At Ozarks Food Harvest, we agree. We’re fortunate to operate in a community that supports our mission to Transform Hunger into Hope. Thank you to kind volunteers like the people at Netsmart who have so much compassion for our neighbors facing hunger. You are bringing hope to children and families across the Ozarks!

To learn more about Hope Notes and our other volunteer opportunities, visit ozarksfoodharvest.org/how-to-help/volunteer.