Ozark Food Harvest combats student hunger in Vernon County

Nevada Daily Mail

Thirty students in the Northeast Vernon County's school district receive food each weekend to combat their hunger.

Every Friday, first grade teacher, Marlene Hogan, hands out food from Ozark Food Harvest, to students. OFH, located in Springfield, delivers the food twice a month, free of charge. The food is donated or purchased with money raised by the food bank.

"They (students) bring [bags of food home] for the weekend so they get a breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack," Hogan said. "You know, I don't think people realize how many people in our country are hungry, and they are; they just don't get enough to eat because their families run out of food, they're just so big. This just helps them out over the weekend.

"Students get dependent on having breakfast and lunch here at school, and when they get home, maybe mom works or parents aren't home or they are staying with grandparents. They can't get a cooked meal like they do here at school. Sometimes that will replace that meal they are missing."

Ozark Food Harvest provides about 56,000 bags of food annually to 15 different southwest Missouri counties, said Heather Hardinger, public relations coordinator at Ozark Food Harvest. The lunches provide "Six nutritious meals for the students to use when they are not at school," she said. The food can be eaten without being heated up or kept refrigerated because most of the food is canned or individually packaged.

Hogan said qualifying for the weekend food bags at NEVC is easy if they are on the free or reduced lunch list at school. According to its website, a school must have at least a 75 percent free/reduced lunch rate before being considered for the Weekend Backpack Program. The Bronaugh and Sheldon school districts in Vernon County are also a part of the program.

The school sets their own criteria too, Hogan said. If the students "Are just really hungry, maybe they eat everything on their plate, even if it's spinach day," she said. Or, "If they are always asking for seconds; you give them a snack, and they are asking for more."

Jessica Long, communication and marketing manager at the Missouri Association for Community Action, said poverty for Vernon County rests at 17.5 percent according to data made available Dec. 9. Of those in poverty, 1,316 are children under the age of 18.

"According to the most recent data we have from Feeding America, over one million Missourians are food insecure, meaning that they do not have access at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life," Long said via email. "This is especially devastating to children's physical and behavioral development in the long run.

"We must ensure that all children have enough nutritious food, because if we do not, it will negatively impact the future of our state. Children who do not get enough to eat are more at risk for poor health, behavioral issues, and learning difficulties. These problems are easily solved, we just have to make sure that every child has enough to eat."

Hogan said if students have siblings either in the school district or still at home, she is able to provide food for them as well.

"The kids, when I take them their bags, I always know who needs it the most or really appreciates it because they are happy to see it," Hogan said. "If I know their parents are coming to pick them up, I give it to them. [Students] come and find me and want to know where their bag is. It's important. They look forward to it, and they obviously use it."