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.
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 ofthe Food Fight competition is to raise hunger awareness across the district and stock community and school pantry shelves for the holiday season.
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.”
The Musgrave Foundation granted a total of $120,000 to select Ozarks Food Harvest partners in February. The funding will be utilized for food for local hunger-relief efforts. The regional food bank, the umbrella organization of more than 200 pantries and programs, will leverage the $120,000 to $1.2 million in food distribution.
More than 250 people give blood in the Ozarks daily, and while every donation helps someone in need, a new program from the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks allows blood donors to make an even greater impact.
LifePoints Lift awards points to people every time they give blood. Those points, which have a cash value, can then be donated to one of ten LifePoints Lift partner agencies, including Ozarks Food Harvest.
Arvest Bank collected nonperishable food items and monetary gifts for Ozarks Food Harvest during its fourth annual bank-wide 1 Million Meals campaign during September and November.
Banks in the Springfield and Nixa area collected 1,434 pounds of food and $4,484, while the Joplin-area banks donated 1,825 pounds and $8,565. This adds up to more than 68,000 meals.
Thirty-nine schools and 24 community partners battled in Ozarks Food Harvest’s fourth-annual school food drive competition, Food Fight, collecting 39,450 pounds of donations, or 32,875 meals — the most ever raised for this food drive.
The seventh annual McDonald’s Cans for Coffee drive collected 45,000 pounds of food — the most ever raised by McDonald’s of the Ozarks. The food drive hadn’t brought in more than 36,000 pounds since 2011, and it surpassed this year’s goal of 30,000 pounds, the equivalent of 25,000 meals.
