This spring, Ozarks Food Harvest rallied the community to participate in two first-time events. Give Ozarks and The Great American Milk Drive made a significant impact on our neighbors in need. Through these efforts, we were able to spread our mission of hope to more people in the Ozarks.
The first-ever Give Ozarks was in an incredible success. The 24-hour online day of giving hosted by Community Foundation of the Ozarks raised $14,301 for the Weekend Backpack Program. Of the 175 individuals and organizations who donated, fifty percent of them were first time donors.
Five Pound Apparel began a new partnership with Ozarks Food Harvest this year. For every T-shirt sold, the local retailer will provide a donation for Ozarks Food Harvest to purchase just over five pounds of food.
To date, over 1,706 shirts have been sold, equating to 9,383 pounds of food that OFH provided to children, families and seniors in the Ozarks. This is not the first time the local retailer has raised funds for The Food Bank, but this new initiative will provide year-round support for those in need.
Local elementary students stepped up to fight hunger in the Ozarks this spring.
First grade students at Field Elementary donated $1,519.58 to The Food Bank. The students raised the funds by making crafts and selling them at a school-wide market.
The fourth-grade classes at Field created 39 pottery bowls and donated them to help raise awareness of hunger in the Ozarks through the Empty Bowls 2015 event in September. They also collected 29 pounds of food for people in need.
This year Stamp Out Hunger collected almost 71 million pounds of food nationwide in support of local food banks. Hosted annually by the National Association of Letter Carriers, Stamp Out Hunger is the largest single-day food drive in America.
“Hunger affects every community in the country,” said Fredric Rolando, NALC president. “At least six days a week, our letter carriers are a local touch point in communities everywhere and we are thrilled to be able to support our neighbors in need though the Stamp Out Hunger food drive.”
During most of the week, the Girls Room at Crimson House is filled with chairs, tables and … girls. But twice a month, when the church hosts its C-Street Connect food pantry, it is filled with fresh food and volunteers.
Used as the cold food distribution center on pantry days, the room had been dark and dreary with insufficient lighting. Thanks to Keller Williams Real Estate, Crimson House was selected to benefit from its annual Red Day program. The room has been transformed with bright pink walls, uplifting messages and plenty of light.
Ozarks Food Harvest is partnering with Panera Bread for Empty Bowls 2015. The annual event, set for Sept. 25, raises awareness of hunger in southwest Missouri.
For a donation to OFH, event-goers receive soup, a baguette and art to take home. The creations, ranging from pottery to carved wood, are meant to serve as a reminder of the thousands of “empty bowls” found on dinner tables across the Ozarks each night.
Ozarks Food Harvest is hosting the first-ever milk voucher fundraiser on Saturday, May 30 at Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park. The goal of the event, The Great American Milk Drive, is to raise funds to provide milk to Springfield children, families and seniors. Special thanks to sponsors of the Great American Milk Drive 2015, who have already donated funds to provide more than 1,400 milk vouchers to food insecure individuals locally. There are multiple opportunities to get involved and help provide more milk to families who are currently receiving, on average, less than one gallon of milk per year from Food Bank hunger-relief organizations.
At Ozarks Food Harvest, we rely on you to support our mission with your valued donations. We’re grateful that year after year, you choose to continue to show compassion for people struggling with hunger.
While we have heard from some of you personally on why the mission of Transforming Hunger into Hope is so dear to your heart, we wanted to, on a larger scale, ask why you give to The Food Bank. This past fall we asked some of our most loyal and generous donors to participate in our 2014 Donor Survey, which consisted of three questions.
After nearly a year of work by Food Bank staff, I’m thrilled to announce the unveiling of a new Ozarks Food Harvest website.
Not only does the site have an improved look, but it’s also designed with you in mind. The homepage immediately grabs your attention with a looped video of our distribution center, giving you a behind the scenes look at OFH.
This spring, Ozarks Food Harvest rallied the community to participate in two first-time events. Give Ozarks and The Great American Milk Drive made a significant impact on our neighbors in need. Through these efforts, we were able to spread our mission of hope to more people in the Ozarks.
