The eighth annual McDonald’s Cans for Coffee food drive collected nearly 20,000 pounds of food for Ozarks Food Harvest.
“Cans for Coffee is not only important to helping provide food to hungry Missourians, but it also draws awareness to the complex issue of hunger in our community,” shared Denise Gibson, OFH development and communication director.
Freeman Kleier’s life has been marked by service to others. First to his country, and now to those struggling with hunger in the Ozarks.
He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1955 at 18 years old. “We went on our senior trip and I went home the next morning to go to Kansas City to be sworn in.”
Twenty-eight Springfield Public Schools and 16 businesses and community partners battled in Ozarks Food Harvest’s fifth annual Food Fight competition, 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 were sent directly to Ozarks Food Harvest’s partner food pantries in Greene County, including four SPS school pantries.
Max and Delys Bodenhausen felt the need to help their community after the catastrophic tornado hit Joplin in 2011.
Unable to physically go to the disaster site, they decided to donate their time a little closer to home.
“We couldn’t go over there to work, but we could help out here,” Max shared. “We just fell in love with this kind of work.”
When Julie lost her job in college admissions, and her husband went on disability after suffering an injury as a construction worker, eight-year-old Hailey was the most sensitive to the fact that her family was going through a hard time.
“Hailey is the one who watched me going through a huge binder of all our utility bills, credit card and mortgage statements, methodically calling each company to see who could work with us, as our savings dwindled,” Julie shared.
Springfield Public Schools will participate in Ozarks Food Harvest’s 5th annual district-wide Food Fight competition October 12-31, with a goal of 45,000 pounds to beat last year’s total of 39,450 pounds of donations.
Food Fight is a food and fund drive competition among Springfield Public Schools with Partners in Education. The mission of the Food Fight competition is to raise hunger awareness across the district and stock community and school pantry shelves for the holiday season.
At Ozarks Food Harvest, we understand the power of a $1 donation. Consider that every dollar donated is stretched to provide $10 worth of food to our neighbors in need.
That’s why we’re thrilled to once again take part in the Walmart Hunger Challenge.
If you’re new to The Food Bank or haven’t heard of this grant, let me tell you more about it. For the past six years, the Walmart Foundation State Giving Program has awarded a grant to Ozarks Food Harvest to provide funding for our agencies. Those agencies then fundraise to receive the grant as a match. For instance, if we select one pantry to receive $5,000, the pantry raises an additional $5,000 to receive the full matching grant.
The second annual Empty Bowls to benefit Ozarks Food Harvest raised over $5,000 to provide 25,000 meals to hungry children, families and seniors in southwest Missouri!
The regional food bank partnered with Panera Bread to offer a bowl handcrafted by a local artist, as well as soup and bread, in exchange for cash donations.
Annual radio-thon helps support 416 children on the Backpack Program
Ozarks Food Harvest and iHeartMedia’s 17th annual radio-thon, Hungerthon, raised $125,380 to support 416 children on the Weekend Backpack Program. The program provides hungry children with nutritious, child-friendly food items to take home over the weekends.
Kevin Howard and Liz Delany of 105.9 KGBX hosted the four day radio-thon. Since 1999, nearly $1.5 million has been raised through Hungerthon. This year, Hungerthon moved from Alice 95.5 to 105.9 KGBX.
Greetings from the O’Reilly Center for Hunger Relief!
Since Ozarks Food Harvest moved into its distribution center six years ago, incredible progress has been made in getting more food to people who need it most.
As Bart shared with you this summer, Ozarks Food Harvest is now distributing over 1.1 million meals every month to children, families and seniors in the Ozarks. That’s a record number of meals, and I’m proud to say that the capacity provided by the O’Reilly Center of Hunger Relief has played a big role in allowing distribution to grow.
Food Bank staff share with me that clients’ most requested items are fruits and vegetables, followed by protein items like meat and dairy — donations that require ample cooler and freezer space.