For years, Michelle and her two kids lived on just $280 a month.
“There were a lot of times when we didn’t have a whole lot and were just trying to get by,” she said.
Even after qualifying for SNAP, or food stamps, the family still struggled to have enough every month for food. A single mom, Michelle isn’t able to work due to a disability.
Twenty Springfield Public Schools and thirteen community partners battled to win the sixth annual Food Fight food and fund drive benefiting Ozarks Food Harvest.Over 32,000 pounds of food and fund donations were collected.
Back in 1999, Kevin Howard and Liz Delany never imagined a new on-air fundraiser for Ozarks Food Harvest would be a success – let alone raise $1.66 million over the next 18 years.
Join Ozarks Food Harvest’s mission to Transform Hunger into Hope with your gift of time. Individual and group volunteers are needed to sort donations, assemble Weekend Backpacksand build Senior Foodboxes.
Ozarks Food Harvest received a large truckload of nonperishable food this fall, thanks to the ninth annual McDonald’s Cans for Coffee food drive.
More than sixty area McDonald’s restaurants collected 27,254 pounds of food. The donation makes Cans for Coffee one of Ozarks Food Harvest’s largest food drives.
As part of an annual Thanksgiving tradition, local racers come together to collect food for Ozarks Food Harvest and participate in Turkey Trot, the largest Thanksgiving Day 5K in Missouri.
Each fall, my team organizes Hunger Action Month, a 30-day campaign to encourage community members to take action against hunger.
Although the campaign takes a lot of planning and preparation, it makes it all worth it when I see how the community comes together to help its neighbors.
Hungerthon, our largest fundraiser of the year, raised $140,447. It was great to visit with so many long-time supporters of the event who continue to be motivated by our mission to help kids come back to school on Mondays with full stomachs.
Ozarks Food Harvest does more than supply food – it provides a network of hope to struggling children, families and seniors right here in our community.
Because we’re committed to providing a hand up, not simply a hand out, our network of 200 hunger-relief charities provide services like nutrition education, skills classes and even promoting job fairs and helping people sign up for SNAP, all in addition to food distribution.
Natalie and Ricky work hard to provide for themselves and their nine-month-old daughter. But sometimes there isn’t enough money to ensure there’s something to eat.
“I work two jobs, she’s a stay at home mom,” said Ricky. “With all the other expenses we have … a little help is needed. By the time I pay the rent and utilities and car insurance, we come up short on food often.”
Natalie and Ricky are able to get the food assistance they need at Crosslines, an Ozarks Food Harvest member pantry in Springfield.