about us

About Ozarks Food Harvest

• Ozarks Food Harvest, The Food Bank collects food and distributes it to a network of more than 340 agency partners such as shelters, soup kitchens, senior centers, pantries and daycares.
• The Food Bank’s mission is to Transform Hunger into Hope™.
• Every $1 donation to Ozarks Food Harvest provides 7 meals to those who need it most.
• The Food Bank uses 95% of donations for food distribution and programs; only 5% is used for administration and fundraising.
• The Food Bank distributes more than 4.5 million pounds of food annually.
• OFH serves 29 counties in southwest Missouri.
• Each month, OFH reaches nearly 40,000 clients across the Ozarks- including poverty stricken children, working poor, families and seniors.
• In addition to food distribution, Ozarks Food Harvest offers direct relief through Kids Cafe®, Food for Thought™, Club F.U.N.™, Mobile Food Pantry™, senior box and summer food programs.
• Ozarks Food Harvest receives food and related items from wholesalers, retailers, food brokers, food distributors, food industries, America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, government agencies and individuals through food drives.
• Volunteering at The Food Bank 1 hour a day feeds 105 people 1 meal.
• Ozarks Food Harvest’s Web sites are www.ozarksfoodharvest.org and www.myspace.com/ozarksfoodharvest.
• Ozarks Food Harvest’s address is 615 North Glenstone, Springfield, Missouri 65802; the phone number is (417) 865-3411, and the fax is (417) 865-0504.
• Statement of Heritage: Ozarks Food Harvest was founded in 1983 as a joint project of the Council of Churches of the Ozarks and the Southwest Missouri Office on Aging. The Food Bank was separately incorporated in order to qualify for membership in America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s food bank network. Since 1989, Ozarks Food Harvest has been an independent, self-funded and governed 501(c)3 organization.

About the Food for Thought™ weekend backpack program

• Food for Thought™ provides severely at-risk children with a backpack filled with nutritious child-friendly foods to take home on the weekends, when they might otherwise go hungry.
• The program is designed to help students get food assistance without drawing any attention to themselves anonymously. The backpacks look like any other student’s backpack.
• The program was started in 2005.
• During the 2006-2007 school year, OFH provided food for nearly 7,800 backpacks.
• Twenty-five schools now benefit from Food for Thought™.

About Kids Cafe® after-school feeding program

• Kids Cafe® is Ozarks Food Harvest’s after-school feeding program that provides hot evening meals to Ozarks children who would otherwise go home to an empty dinner plate.
• By partnering with several local nonprofits, Kids Cafe® sites serve nearly 1,000 children each night, five nights a week.
• There are 16 Kids Cafe® locations across OFH’s service area.

About the Club F.U.N.™ fitness and nutrition program

• Club F.U.N.™, which stands for Fitness, Understanding Health, and Nutrition is a summer class designed to teach children ages 6-9 the importance of fitness and good nutrition.
• Club F.U.N.’s™ sister-program, “The Power of Choice” is geared toward children ages 10-13 to teach them why good nutrition is important to their changing bodies.
• Club F.U.N.™ won the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service “Summer Sunshine Award” for excellence in summer food service programs that emphasize improved nutrition and physical activities in 2005.

About the Mobile Food Pantry™ food distribution program

• The Mobile Food Pantry™ is Ozarks Food Harvest’s newest program which utilizes an adapted beverage trailer to bring food to people in impoverished communities.
• A major goal of the Mobile Food Pantry™ is to reach underserved areas with high poverty rates.
• Ozarks Food Harvest distributed more than 180,000 pounds of food to more than 5,500 people in the Mobile Food Pantry’s™ first year or operation.
• The Rotary Clubs of Springfield and The Ridewell Corporation sponsor this program.

About Ozarks Food Harvest’s Warehouse

• Ozarks Food Harvest has leased its warehouse since 1989 to receive, store, and distribute food, and it has reached its limitations both in size and suitability.
• In order to take advantage of as much donated food as possible, it is vital for Ozarks Food Harvest to adapt to changes in the food industry – particularly the prevalence of frozen and refrigerated food. This trend has resulted in a dramatic increase in donations of frozen and perishable food to Ozarks Food Harvest.
• The Food Bank was forced to turn down over a quarter of a million pounds of food in one year because there was simply nowhere to store it prior to distribution.
• Ozarks Food Harvest’s current warehouse does not have the space to pull and store orders for delivery. Large orders must be pulled and stacked in aisles ahead of time. Still more food is stored in the aisles awaiting a bin location because the receiving dock cannot support even one full semi-truck load of food. This lack of space also impacts efficient inspection of incoming product.
• Clearly, this is a poor situation for inventory control and efficiency. Money spent in leasing the existing facility and moving frozen food from location to location would be much better spent on moving food directly to the people who need it most.
• A larger warehouse with adequate freezer and refrigeration space will allow Ozarks Food Harvest to meet its long-range goals to:
  • Broaden food distribution, especially to extremely impoverished rural communities.
  • Offer more food assistance to greater numbers of low-income children, families, and older adults.
  • Expand direct-service programs to help meet unmet needs of people in the Ozarks.
• The Food Bank has embarked on a Compassion in Action capital campaign to build a larger, customized and more efficient food distribution center to better meet the needs of its community.