Community Foundation of the Ozarks

At a recent Ozarks Food Harvest Mobile Pantry in Joplin, 150 people received eggs, cheese, meat, bread, cereal, Gatorade, and snack foods to feed their families

CFO affiliates raised $105,000 and received $100,000 in matching funds from the Walmart State Foundation to fight chronic hunger in their communities.

A total of 19 affiliates successfully completed the Challenge Grant, which is being channeled primarily through the Ozarks Food Harvest, which has a 28-county service area that largely mirrors the CFO’s region.

The CFO affiliates that completed the Hunger Challenge are: Aurora, Bolivar, Cassville, DACO (Dade County), Dallas County, El Dorado Springs, Finley River (Ozark area), Houston, Jacks Fork, Southwest Missouri (Carthage-Joplin area), Marshfield, Nixa, Oregon County, Seymour, Stockton, Table Rock Lake, Taney County, and West Plains.

The Wal-Mart State Foundation State Giving Program selected the Ozarks Food Harvest for its challenge grant program last year, which began in response to the national report – “Hunger in America 2010” – describing the extent to which hunger plagues Ozarks communities. An estimated 155,000 Ozarkers face chronic hunger issues, according to the report.

For more information, see the full  Hunger Challenge news release .

We’d like to welcome this first group of new funds to kick off the Community Foundation’s new fiscal year.

The Hartville R-II School District established The Hartville Teacher’s Support Fund so that each teacher will have first day of school classroom funding. Hartville is a new Agency Partner in the education category.

The newly formed Hartville School Foundation established a fund to support the programs and projects of the Hartville R-II School District. The Foundation also becomes a new Agency Partner in education.

A group of Ozark women established the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Fund. Lisa Engel, Shirley Wikander, Linda Thomas, Ginger Holzer and Jeanette Hipskind established this fund to assist them as they hold fundraisers to help make the Ozark community a better place to live. This fund is part of the Finley River Community Foundation.

The Missouri Medical Assistance Program Fund will support the mission of the Missouri Medical Assistance Program to assist low-income individuals and families within the community who need  immediate assistance with their medical bills and debt. MOMAP is a new Agency Partner in the health category.

The Greater Ozarks Audubon Society established The GLADE Fund to support the GLADE project and student conservation projects of students who have participated in GLADE. This is the group’s second fund.

The Rotaract Club of Springfield Fund has been established to provide an endowment to support  charitable activities and programs in the area. Rotaract is the Rotary organization for members under the age of 30.

The Ozark High School Youth Empowerment Project was presented with a $2,500 prize on Monday, March 8th for creating a winning video in the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ 60 Second Challenge video competition. The winning video, titled, “Someday We’ll All Be Philanthropists”, is student-created and developed piece which provides a 60 second synopsis of the work of the Ozark High School Youth Empowerment Project (YEPO). YEPO is a youth-driven component of the Finley River Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

Students at schools which are part of the Rural Schools Partnership were given an opportunity to create a 60 second web video. These videos speak of a challenge, project, or group in their school. Students were encouraged to be as concrete or as abstract as they liked. CFO received excellent submissions from throughout the Missouri Ozarks, and student members of the Springfield Youth Empowerment Project selected first, second, and three third place winners to receive monetary prizes to continue their good work.

To see all the challenge winners and to watch the videos, visit our website here:

60 Second Challenge

Picture: YEPO students and sponsors receive the $2,500 grant from CFO in a ceremony held March 8th at the Ozark High School auditorium.