Community Foundation of the Ozarks

CFO affiliates and their local food programs completed the Ozarks Million Dollar Hunger Challenge II this fall by raising $125,000 to match an equivalent challenge grant from the Walmart State Giving Foundation to Ozarks Food Harvest.

In all, 23 of the CFO’s 44 affiliates participated in the Hunger Challenge, which leverages the total of $250,000 at a 10:1 ratio of buying, transporting and distributing food through the OFH network of feeding programs and pantries.

The Walmart State Giving Foundation awarded a $125,000 grant to Ozarks Food Harvest for a second challenge opportunity earlier this year after last year’s success with a $100,000 grant for the original Ozarks Million Dollar Hunger Challenge.

In this year’s Ozarks Million Dollar Hunger Challenge II, 25 food programs across the region worked with the 23 CFO affiliates to raise matching funds by the end of September.

Grant presentations, shown in the gallery below, have been made with affiliate and food program leaders in a number of the communities over the past month. The participating affiliates were: Aurora, Bolivar, Cassville, DACO, Dallas, Dent, El Dorado Springs, Finley River, Houston, Jacks Fork, Lockwood, Marshfield, Monett, Mount Vernon, Mountain Grove, Neosho, Nixa, Oregon County, Seymour, Stockton, Southwest Missouri, Taney County and West Plains.

“We appreciate the cooperative spirit between our affiliate foundations and their local food pantries to jointly tackle this matching grant opportunity,” CFO President Brian Fogle said.

This program began in response to a 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.

“We are grateful for the funding from the Walmart State Giving Program which allows us to leverage hunger relief support to our local Ozarks communities,” said Bart Brown, CEO at Ozarks Food Harvest.

“There’s a growing population of clients who are not eligible for government assistance such as WIC or the National School Lunch Program. This ‘gap’ truly relies on our member pantries and feeding sites to help feed their families,” Brown said. “The current child food insecurity rate is sobering. More than a quarter of our children — five percent higher than the national rate — now face hunger, or do not know where their next meal is coming from.”

Ozarks Food Harvest is the Feeding America food bank for southwest Missouri, serving more than 300 hunger relief organizations across 28 Ozarks counties in addition to long-term relief sites in Joplin. The Food Bank reaches 20,000 individuals weekly and distributes one million pounds of food monthly. OFH was named the 2011 Small Business of the Year by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. Learn more at ozarksfoodharvest.org and at facebook.com/ozarksfoodharvest.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is again teaming up with Ozarks Food Harvest and the Walmart State Giving Program to tackle the chronic hunger problems that affect our region.

The 2^nd Annual Ozarks Million Dollar Hunger Challenge kicked off at a news conference at Ozarks Food Harvest today. The Walmart Foundation State Giving Program pledged a $125,000 grant toward a 1:1 match with regional food pantries served by Ozarks Food Harvest.

The participating food pantries were selected in 27 communities that have CFO affiliate foundations so that those foundations could offer fundraising support, community grantmaking awards or other types of assistance to partner with their local food banks.

“This is a great way to address hunger across one-third of the state of Missouri using a great trio of partners,” OFH President and CEO Bart Brown said.

He also discussed a new analysis of local “food insecurity” levels that support anecdotal information and a 2010 Hunger Study. The analysis shows that many people facing “food insecurity” have income and/or resources that make them ineligible for assistance programs. Many of them are people who have lost jobs, but still have homes or cars that count as assets.

“More and more clients who come to food pantries are the unemployed middle class who need assistance,” Brown said. “Technically, they’re not poor, but they don’t have any money.”

Through Ozarks Food Harvest’s buying program, the $250,000 in potential funds from the challenge grant and matching funds will leverage about $1 million worth, or 2.5 million pounds, of food for the participating pantries, food banks and mobile food banks.

The first Million Dollar Hunger Challenge was completed last year when 19 CFO affiliates raised $105,000, which was matched with $100,000 from the Walmart State Foundation.

CFO President Brian Fogle said this represents another example where charitable dollars are filling the gaps created by decreased public funding at all levels. He said this model works well because it directly serves residents in the communities where the money will be raised.

“That is philanthropy at its best,” Fogle said.

Becky Wood, Walmart’s Senior Foundation Manager from Bentonville, Ark., said the company’s State Giving Councils are comprised of local associates who determine the best use of foundation resources for  their states.

“It’s great to be a partner with you in Springfield,” she said.

Perhaps the largest presence in a room chock full of civic energy and pride was the one who was not there.

On Thursday night, the Nixa Community Foundation honored as its Citizen of the Year the late Betty Ann Rogers, a spirited volunteer and NCF board member who died unexpectedly last year at just 64.

Betty Ann was determined to contribute to Nixa when they moved to the community in 1998, said Mitch Callicott, whose moving tribute to his partner of 23 years stilled the room. She threw herself into every volunteer role with the same spirit and passion she put into her friendships and voracious reading habit, he said.

“We wanted to make this community our own,” Callicott said.

“I can only ask that we remember Betty Ann for what she was – energetic, loving, active and involved – and learn from her example. Become involved and make your mark. When you deeply and truly believe in something, you’ll make a difference.”

Every one of the citizens honored Thursday are making a difference in Nixa – at the schools, protecting the public, helping kids, and supporting community projects.

Another CFO partner, Holly Beadle, was honored as the school district’s Volunteer of the Year for her service including the Nixa Education Foundation Board.

President Sharon Whitehill Gray and the Board members distributed $46,591 in community grants to 24 organizations. As the CFO’s first affiliate in 1993 and now with the largest community grantmaking program, Nixa has awarded a total of $836,654 and has assets of more than $1.8 million in 50 community and school funds.

“You are to be congratulated for having the energy and resources that it takes to create a vibrant community,” CFO President Brian Fogle said.

And a special grant was presented to Mitch Callicott and Betty Ann’s step-daughter Shelby Rogers for the Betty Ann Rogers Community Fund. She was a member of the CFO’s Legacy Society for the Nixa Community Foundation. She understood the significance of making her mark for good on Nixa – the place she’d come to consider home.

NCF Vice President Ken Worthley had spoken earlier in the evening about what planned gifts like Betty Ann’s had meant to the community over the years.

“Each of us has the opportunity to plan how we want to give back to the community,” he said, recalling how philanthropic dollars helped create the park he played in as a kid.

“We have to plan for what we want things to be,” he said. “We are the ones reaping the benefits of their plans.”