Ozarks Food Harvest exceeds fiscal distribution goal

Ozarks Food Harvest distributed 16.4 million pounds of food for its recently competed fiscal 2015, beating its goal by roughly 400,000 pounds.

For the year ended June 30, the Springfield food bank sent out the equivalent of 13.6 million meals, or roughly one truckload of food every day, according to a news release.

“We know that each meal provided to a hungry child, underemployed adult or disabled senior means more to them than we will ever know,” Ozarks Food Harvest President and CEO Bart Brown said in the release.

During its fiscal year, more than 260,000 children, families and seniors were provided meals via Ozarks Food Harvest’s network of 200 member agencies. Since 2009, the number of people served has risen by 69 percent, and children equate to 30 percent of those served.

The nonprofit also increased its distribution of fresh produce to around 5.6 million products during the year, according to the release.