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Ozarks Food Harvest is spreading awareness about the solvable problem of hunger in the Ozarks!

Because education about hunger in our communities helps us Transform Hunger into Hope™, The Food Bank holds and participates in special events each year that help educate the public, including: Hungerthon, a radiothon with Alice@95.5, Check Out Hunger™, a retail point-of-sale promotion with area supermarkets, Hunger Run, a 5K sponsored by Panera Bread, Hunger Awareness Day with American Family Insurance and the Springfield Cardinals and more!

It’s important to participate in these events to help end hunger, and it’s also essential to know these key hunger-relief terms:

Food Insecurity: The USDA’s measure of lack of access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members; limited or uncertain availability of nutritious foods.

Food Insecurity with Hunger: An involuntary state that results from not being able to afford enough food.

Food Bank: A charitable organization that solicits, receives, inventories and distributes donated food and grocery products pursuant to grocery industry and appropriate regulatory standards. The products are distributed to charitable human service agencies, which provide the products directly to needy clients. Ozarks Food Harvest is the only food bank serving agencies in 29 counties in southwest Missouri.

Agency: The charitable organization that provides the food supplied by a food bank directly to clients in need through various types of programs. Ozarks Food Harvest serves more than 340 agencies, including: food pantries, homeless shelters, abused women’s shelters, children’s after school feeding sites, and soup kitchens, etc.

Food Pantry: A charitable distribution agency that provides its clients food and other grocery products for home preparation and consumption.

Shelter: A charitable program whose primary purpose is to provide shelter or housing on a short-term or temporary basis to needy clients and typically serves one or more meals a day.