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.

Philanthropic support to rebuild Joplin is growing through a coalition of private donors, regional community foundations, corporate gifts and grass-roots fundraising efforts using the CFO’s Joplin Recovery Fund.

Soon after Monday’s announcement that the CFO would open the recovery fund on behalf of its largest affiliate, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc., donors began expressing their faith in Joplin’s future with an estimated $250,000 in direct donations and commitments so far. The CFO is committing 100 percent of the donations for mid- to long-term recovery grants to non-profits working on the civic, economic, human services and educational needs created by Sunday’s historic storm.

While the immediate work in Joplin remains focused on emergency needs and search-and-rescue efforts, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri is starting to form a Joplin area leadership group that will take responsibility for developing recovery grantmaking strategies.

“My heart is still so sad, but today we’ve been able to start helping people recover, so that’s the good news,” said Michelle Ducre, the CFO’s staff associate for the Joplin-Carthage area.

The CFSWM also opened the Joplin Tornado First Response Fund this week at the request of the City of Joplin for shorter-term needs.

Some examples of the generosity and support that donors have announced include:

• The Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation, a long-time partnership between Commerce Trust and the CFO, quickly matched the CFO’s $10,000 donation to seed the Joplin Recovery Fund with a $10,000 donation.
• U.S. Bancorp donated $50,000 to the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, as part of its $100,000 commitment to Joplin’s relief and rebuilding efforts. U.S. Bancorp, which operates U.S. Bank locations across Missouri, also donated $25,000 to the Greater Ozarks Chapter of the American Red Cross and $25,000 to United Way.
• The City of West Plains, where the CFO has one of its two regional offices along with the Joplin-Carthage area, endorsed the Joplin Recovery Fund for its residents interested in helping its western Missouri neighbor rebuild.
• Regional community foundations, including the Tulsa Community Foundation, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Southeast Kansas, are encouraging their interested donors to support the Joplin Recovery Fund.

Private donors from 25 states and Canada also have made contributions this week, some fueled by local connections and others moved by national media reports projecting Joplin’s resiliency and humanity in coping with nature’s fury. And several Joplin-area employers have opened  benevolence funds to assist their own employees who have lost family members, suffered injuries, or sustained major property losses.

Donations can be made online at: http://www.cfozarks.org/donate. Please note either “Joplin Recovery Fund” or “Joplin Tornado First-Response Fund” in the fund/program box. Checks can be sent to: Community Foundation of the Ozarks, P.O. Box 8960, Springfield, MO, 65801. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by the IRS.

For any questions about the Joplin Recovery Fund, please call the Community Foundation at (417) 864-6199 or e-mail: cfo@cfozarks.org.

The 2011 conference for the CFO’s affiliate foundations offered a variety of topics and information for more than 60 presidents and board members who came to Springfield last week.

CFO President Brian Fogle offered a perspective on rural community development aimed at reinforcing the affiliates’ roles as leaders and community builders.

Three breakout sessions on board development, fund development and marketing/communications were designed to share practical ideas and goals for the key topics identified at last conference when the affiliates focused on strategic planning.

A lunchtime panel discussion highlighted successful event planning and fundraising ideas, including tips on making the events both safe and successful.

The CFO’s Carol Silvey continued the “friendraising” training she began during the fall regional meetings with affiliates. And Brian Fogle wrapped up the conference by celebrating the CFO’s recent milestone of $100 million in grantmaking and distributions back to our communities. He also congratulated four affiliates that have recently achieved the $1 million milestone in assets – the Aurora Area Community Foundation, the Finley River Community Foundation, the Lockwood Community Foundation, and the West Plains Community Foundation.