Max and Delys Bodenhausen felt the need to help their community after the catastrophic tornado hit Joplin in 2011.
Unable to physically go to the disaster site, they decided to donate their time a little closer to home.
“We couldn’t go over there to work, but we could help out here,” Max shared. “We just fell in love with this kind of work.”
Over 500 hours of service was donated to Ozarks Food Harvest by 325 volunteers, providing 55,000 meals to children, families and seniors in need during the 23rd Annual United Way Day of Caring.
Over 20,000 pounds of food was sorted in The Food Bank’s Volunteer Center, 1,442 Senior Food boxes were assembled, almost 2,000 pounds of food and $1,103 was collected during food drives, 77 pounds of produce was gleaned from Ozarks Food Harvest’s garden and area children wrote 632 notes of encouragement to fellow students who receive weekend food bags.
After Arlene Eichler retired, she was anxious to find something meaningful to fill her days.
“I get up early and exercise,” the 71-year-old shared, “but after that I thought, ‘Now what am I going to do?’”
Arlene began volunteering at Ozarks Food Harvest nearly four years ago and since then has given 657 hours of her time. She also volunteers twice a week with Well of Life, an OFH member agency.
Springfield Rotary clubs hosted a Rotary Feeds the Ozarks volunteer day at Ozarks Food Harvest on June 27. Eighty-eight volunteers sorted nearly 19,000 pounds of food and assembled 591 senior food boxes. Together, this will provide 32,374 meals for children, families and seniors in the Ozarks.