News

At Ozarks Food Harvest, volunteers help us sort, pack and harvest 100,000 pounds of food each week. Just one volunteer can provide more than 300 meals in three hours, and a group afternoon session can ensure hundreds of children have a Weekend Backpack to take home. That’s how our volunteer Amanda realized she cared about ending hunger – because her time makes a big impact at The Food Bank.

“We would come build Backpacks and Senior Boxes. You see these kids that don’t have enough to eat, and of course there’s nothing they can do about that,” said Amanda. “They’re reliant on their parents to provide them the food they need. That was probably the most impactful, knowing how many kids we were helping.”

When asked why volunteering matters, Amanda answered that volunteering raises your awareness, and awareness is the first step. Amanda first came to Ozarks Food Harvest with a former employer, but she has learned so much about hunger and The Food Bank’s impact that she keeps coming back even in retirement. She’s even brought her daughters along, which has inspired them to volunteer in the cities where they’re currently attending college.

Now Amanda has done a little of everything at Ozarks Food Harvest: gardening, sorting food donations, Senior Boxes, Weekend Backpacks, Hope Notes, Garden-to-Go Kits and even special projects like Christmas float decorations. You name it, and she’s probably done it. Amanda volunteers four to five times a week because she’s learned why The Food Bank’s hunger-relief efforts are important – 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults face hunger in southwest Missouri.

Amanda explained, “I still wonder if people realize how prevalent [food insecurity] is. I wonder if people really, truly understand how many kids go to bed hungry at night. I think we all just get so busy with our own life, but sometimes we don’t realize how our next-door neighbor or our child’s friend at school may be impacted by it.”

As an example, Amanda shared how she was shocked to learn the prevalence of child hunger in her own community. She lives in the Strafford school district, which has its own backpack program, and shared, “You see those kids at Christmas programs and stuff and they seem fine, but then you find out how many of them are actually getting those backpacks. I think it really hits you when you see it in your own community.”

That’s exactly why volunteers like Amanda are crucial to the movement to end hunger, so that we can make sure food moves through The Food Bank and into the hands of local families in need. Thank you to Amanda for helping us rescue and harvest food so our neighbors can thrive.

To learn more about hunger in the Ozarks and how you can help, visit ozarksfoodharvest.org/how-to-help.