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.”

The CFO's Julie Leeth (third from left) presents a ceremonial check for $11,100 to members of the Nixa Education Foundation.

The Nixa Education Foundation received $11,100 with a recent ceremonial check presentation successfully completing the Harry Cooper Supply Company Campaign for the Ozarks to build long-term education funding through philanthropy.

The Foundation raised $21,930 to receive the matching funds through the Cooper Phase II Challenge for members of the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership during 2010. The total of $33,030 is designated for the Foundation’s Legacy Fund, which preserves and invests a core amount to create an annual distribution of funds to help stabilize the district’s revenue.

Nixa was among 26 southern Missouri rural schools to participate in the year-long challenge grant opportunity, which raised nearly $1 million from generous donors and the Harry Cooper Supply Company to build long-term sustainability for these districts. The other districts are: Alton, Aurora, Ava, Bolivar, Bradleyville, Cassville, Dallas County, Dora, Eminence, Fair Grove, Fairview, Gainesville, Hermann, Hollister, Houston, Lockwood, Logan-Rogersville, Monett, Reeds Spring, Seymour, Valle, Warsaw, Weaubleau, West Plains and Willard.

The Nixa Education Foundation held a number of activities to raise the funds for the matching-grant opportunity. Foundation President Becky Sawyer said the group had a $100 for 100 campaign for Nixa alumni involved while faculty and staff contribute through payroll deductions. She said students and parents made donations to honor people special to them, and students also created and sold Christmas cards to raise money.

“There’s no way we could have done it without the support of the entire community – faculty staff, students and alumni, and businesses,” Sawyer said. “Everyone had a piece in this and we want to thank everyone. It was truly a combined effort of many.

“We also appreciate the Harry Cooper Company and thank them for this opportunity,” she said. “If it had not been for making this grant available to us, I’m certain we would have $30,000 less in our endowment fund.”

Humanitarian Award founder Jewell Thompson Schweitzer with 2010 recipient Doug Pitt

Care to Learn Founder Doug Pitt was honored as the 2010 Humanitarian today for his creation of a program to provide students with basic food, health and hygiene needs that began in Springfield and has now expanded to Bolivar, Ozark, Nixa and Republic.

More than 130 people honored Pitt at today’s luncheon for Care to Learn’s response in fulfilling more than 36,300 cases of need since he created it in 2008 with start-up support from Springfield businessman Jim D. Morris and the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

“A community needs to take care of its own,” Pitt said in his remarks after accepting the award from Jewell Thompson Schweitzer, a longtime Community Foundation of the Ozarks supporter who established the Humanitarian award. “We should be very proud of the collaborative spirit that goes on every day in our community.”

The Humanitarian honor includes a $3,000 cash award, which Pitt said he will divide evenly among the five Care to Learn chapters.

The 2010 award marks the 21^st year of honoring humanitarians in the Ozarks. Mrs. Schweitzer established the award to pay tribute to individuals who place service to others as the primary motivating force in their lives. The 2009 award was presented to Oregon County ranchers and brothers Roger D. “Dusty” Shaw, Jr., a CFO board member, and William Shaw, for their philanthropic work in south-central Missouri.

Pitt was nominated for the award by friend and businessman Bobby Allison, Drury University President Todd Parnell, and SRC Holdings Corp. President Jack Stack.

Parnell described Pitt, the co-owner of ServiceWorld Computer Center in Springfield, as someone with “the heart of a philanthropist” who also has the good business sense to run an effective program. Allison chided Pitt about his golf game, saying he doesn’t have time to improve it because he’s busy working on the plight of those less fortunate in both the Ozarks and around the world.

In addition to his work on Care to Learn, Pitt was honored for his role as a goodwill ambassador to Tanzania and his support for construction of wells for clean drinking water in Africa as well as his role as co-chair of the Homelessness Task Force in Springfield.

CFO President Brian Fogle concluded the luncheon by thanking all the people who have supported Care to Learn since its founding.

“Doug Pitt saw children without shoes, without coats and even without shampoo, and said ‘Yes, I can do something about this’,” Fogle said. “Others of you offer support with your time, talent, and resources in supporting CFO, and other non-profits in our community.

“We have 100 reasons not to get involved, or let someone else do it,” he said. “But thank God you here in this room have hearts that refuse to let you look at a first-grader without a coat on a sub-zero day, and tell him or her, ‘no’.”

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 .

Nixa Community Foundation recently awarded more than $36,000 in grants through its unrestricted, community grantmaking program. Grants were given at the Nixa Community Foundation annual banquet held on February 18, 2010.

Nixa Community Foundation was CFO’s first affiliate community foundation  with its establishment in 1993. Since then, Nixa Community Foundation has granted more than $625,000 to worthwhile programs and organizations serving the citizens of Nixa.

CAPTION: Grantees who received grant checks at the banquet pose for a group picture.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is pleased to announce the Ozarks Million Dollar Hunger Challenge. Made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation State Program and a partnership with Ozarks Food Harvest, this program allows CFO affiliate community foundations to raise  dollars that will be matched 1:1 to fight hunger in their local communities. The program will leverage the initial $100,000 gift into $200,000 which will procure $1 million worth of food through Ozarks Food Harvest, the only food bank serving one-third of Missouri.

Twenty-one  affiliates have chosen to participate in this program which was available to those CFO affiliates that fall within Ozarks Food Harvest’s 29-county service area. A complete of list participating affiliates is located at the end of this story.

“It’s only natural that we partner with the Walmart Foundation and CFO since our service areas in this part of the state literally mirror each other,” said Bart Brown, president and CEO of Ozarks Food Harvest.

Hunger challenge funds have been established as component funds of each participating affiliate community foundation. The matching opportunity runs through June 30, 2010.

“The challenging economic environment we’re facing calls for us to identify new resources to help with hunger, and make the existing ones stretch further,” said Brian Fogle, executive vice president of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. “The generous Walmart grant provides the catalyst for our affiliates to raise matching funds, and the strength and connections of Ozarks Food Harvest insure those funds will be used in the most effective manner to address hunger in our Ozarks region.”

This partnership was unveiled following the February 4th announcement of a new landmark hunger study which found that Ozarks Food Harvest is serving 155,000 individuals annually. Ozarks Food Harvest-The Food Bank distributed seven milion pounds of food during its last fiscal year, the highest distribution in its 27-year history. To view the complete study and learn more, please visit ozarksfoodharvest.org.

Ozarks Million Dollar Hunger Challenge participating affiliates include:
- Aurora Area Community Foundation
- Bolivar Area Community Foundation
- Cassville Community Foundation
- DACO Community Foundation
- Dallas County Community Foundation
- El Dorado Springs Community Foundation
- Finley River Community Foundation
- Houston Community Foundation
- Jacks Fork Community Foundation
- Marshfield Area Community Foundation
- Mtn. Grove Area Community Foundation
- Nixa Community Foundation
- Oregon County Community Foundation
- Ozark County Community Foundation
- Greater Seymour Area Foundation
- Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri (Carthage & Joplin)
- Stockton Community Foundation
- Table Rock Lake Community Foundation
- Taney County Community Foundation
-  Community Foundation of West Plains

CAPTION: From left to right: Skip Tinney, market manager, Walmart; Sharon Whitehill Gray, president, Nixa Community Foundation & CFO board member; Leigh Hall, Nixa Community Foundation board member; Brian Fogle, CFO; Betty Ann Rogers, Nixa Community Foundation board member; and Bart Brown, president/CEO, Ozarks Food Harvest.

The Harry Cooper Supply Company Campaign for the Ozarks is a dollar for dollar challenge grant in partnership with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks that is part of an overall regional effort to enhance community grantmaking endowments, establish administrative/operations endowments, and promote appropriate and best practices by community foundation board of directors. This initiative is made possible through the generosity of the Harry Cooper Supply Company.

With public entities dealing with limited budgets and increasing needs, unrestricted community grantmaking programs play an important role in the community by responding to local needs with local resources. The Nixa Community Foundation’s grant offers just one example of the impact our affiliate community foundations are having in Ozarks’ communities through their grantmaking programs.

Nixa’s story is a timely one as well, with 37 of CFO’s 40 affiliate community foundations raising money for their community grantmaking programs as part of the $1 million Harry Cooper Supply Company Campaign for the Ozarks. The Cooper Campaign has made available a $25,000 matching grant to participating community foundations as part of an effort to expand and enhance community grantmaking and establish administrative/operational endowments that ensure the long-term viability of each affiliate foundation. To date, affiliate foundations have raised more than half a million dollars in response to the campaign. Additional news regarding the Cooper Campaign can be found here.

You can read KY3′s story on their web site.