Teressa Faber has worked as the emergency resource manager for the Good Samaritan of the Ozarks in Richland for over eight years. The pantry, which also has a thrift store, serves about 240 families commodities and 400 families bread and produce each month. In the first 10 months of 2015, the pantry served over 18,000 people.
Q: How did you become involved in the pantry?
A: I applied for a part-time cashier position with the Good Samaritan thrift store because I recognized that this organization was sincere about trying to help others. However, I was hired for the manager position and when that happened, I felt that God was directing me and had something he wanted me to do here.Read More
Each month when clients visit the Helping Hands Community Food Pantry, they are given the valuable opportunity to make choices about the food they take home.
Founded in 2009, Helping Hands is a client-choice pantry located in Barry County, where 14.5 percent of the population is food insecure. Its philosophy is to offer clients choices when it comes to food.
Ozarks Food Harvest is encouraging churches, schools, businesses or any interested group to participate in the second annual community Fish Drive during Lent, Feb. 10 to March 24.
In 2015, the idea was implemented to ask the community to go fishing for its neighbors in need throughout the Lent season by collecting canned and pouched fish for Ozarks Food Harvest.
Winter break offers a chance for college students to relax after a hectic semester of classes.
Twelve students from the University of South Dakota had different plans. In January, they traveled eight hours to serve one week in the Springfield community — volunteering at Ozarks Food Harvest and other nonprofits.
The line of people waiting for food from the C-Street Connect pantry at Crimson House wrapped around the building. You could see the struggle, pain and exhaustion on their faces. But, surprisingly, there was also a lot of laughter.
The holiday season is a difficult time for many seniors throughout the Ozarks. Too often they spend the season alone because they do not have family to celebrate with.
Thankfully, many of Ozarks Food Harvest’s partnering senior centers planned special activities throughout the holidays to ensure their clients felt loved and appreciated.
Missouri State University student Juan Trujillo started volunteering at Ozarks Food Harvest as part of a scholarship requirement, but came to truly enjoy giving back.
“Everybody likes to do stuff for themselves, but once you do something for someone else it’s easier to see the high priority of volunteering,” Trujillo shared.
As we approach the New Year at Ozarks Food Harvest, I am thankful for the loyalty and hard work our donors and volunteers continue to show.
With the help of our large family of supporters, we have accomplished a lot this year.
We saw a dramatic increase in the number of volunteers at The Food Bank and several community events drew first-time donors to help their neighbors in need.
Unfortunately, many children, families and seniors in our community still do not know where their next meal will come from.
Happy Holidays from the O’Reilly Center for Hunger Relief!
I’m sure many of you would agree that the Ozarks is a special place to call home. The willingness to work together to better the community and a genuine concern for others are some of the things I value most.
This fall, a report card highlighting the strengths — blue ribbons — and challenges — red flags — in Springfield and Greene County was released. Although we received many high marks in areas like collaboration, community revitalization and awareness of civic responsibility, poverty continues to be widespread among our neighbors.
According to the report, Springfield recently surpassed St. Louis to become the city in Missouri with the highest percentage of families in poverty.
“There’s been times that my husband has been laid off or we’re short of income,” the 32-year-old shared. “Times are hard … but then there are resources like this.”
Teressa Faber has worked as the emergency resource manager for the Good Samaritan of the Ozarks in Richland for over eight years. The pantry, which also has a thrift store, serves about 240 families commodities and 400 families bread and produce each month. In the first 10 months of 2015, the pantry served over 18,000 people.
