Sometimes we run out of food at home. It makes me sad. I don't tell my mom and dad. I just eat as much as I can at school and the club.Clark, age 10
Free meals are provided to food insecure children
Ozarks Food Harvest works to feed children who often go home to empty dinner plates. These children rely on their schools’ free and reduced meal programs for their daily nutrition. After hours, they eat at an OFH-sponsored After-School FoodProgram. These sites provide free meals and snacks to children, after school, at a variety of community locations where kids already congregate such as Boys & Girls Clubs, churches, schools and community centers.
400+
Children
Served 5 nights a week
52K
Meals & snacks
Provided annually
20
Locations
Offer OFH meals to children
Meet Kate, the girl with the bellyache
1 in 5 children in the Ozarks are at risk of going to bed hungry
The children served also receive instruction on meal serving, preparation and clean-up, in hopes of instilling responsibility, self-worth and community mindfulness in their lives. Over half the schools in Ozarks Food Harvest’s service area have more than a 50 percent free and reduced meal rate, and many are higher than 90 percent! You can help feed a child like Kate simply by providing a healthy meal. Just one dollar will provide five meals to someone in need.
Sites listed include six non-sponsored partners and 14 OFH-sponsored program sites. Meals provided by non-sponsored sites, indicated with an asterisk, are not included in this program’s totals. If your organization is interested in becoming a partner site, contact Ozarks Food Harvest at (417) 865-3411.
All of Ozarks Food Harvest’s partner agencies comply with a non-discrimination policy and are prohibited from refusing service to anyone based on race, creed, religious or political affiliation, gender or sexual preferences. Agencies are also prohibited from requiring participation in any religious services or activities in exchange for Ozarks Food Harvest’s food or services.
I make sure the kids have food. Sometimes my husband and I go days without eating so that the kids will.
