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Imagine a semi-truck filled with meat, fruits, vegetables, canned goods and bread. Now, instead of that perfectly usable food filling your pantry, picture it sitting in a landfill. It’s hard to fathom, especially as 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults in southwest Missouri experience food insecurity. With so much edible food being thrown away, no one should have to wonder where their next meal will come from.

The solution is food rescue. Four hundred ninety-six truckloads is how much food Ozarks Food Harvest diverted from local landfills last fiscal year – the equivalent of 12 million meals. Seven million of those meals came through our Retail Pick-Up Program alone. The Retail Pick-Up Program is The Food Bank’s largest food rescue initiative, coordinating with local grocers to pick up food items that don’t meet standards for retail sales but are still perfectly good to eat.

Volunteers check donated items for food safety standards before they’re distributed to our network, and food that has gone bad is sent to local pig farmers to feed their livestock.

Ozarks Food Harvest also partners with local farms and gardens to rescue fresh produce that would otherwise be discarded. Based on harvest and demand, growers sometimes end up with more fruits and vegetables than they can use or sell. Our Full Circle Gardens Glean Team volunteers harvest the excess crop, and Food Bank staff deliver it directly to our partner charities while the produce is fresh from the source.

We are invested in food rescue because it goes hand-in-hand with hunger relief. There is enough food for everyone when we work together to reduce food waste. Thanks to compassionate donors, growers and volunteers, we’re making a difference for both the environment and families facing hunger.