Record Food Distribution for Southeast Missouri Food Bank

SIKESTON — Southeast Missouri Food Bank recently completed another record-breaking year with the distribution of 12.9 million pounds of food, a 9% increase over the pounds of food distributed in 2018.

“This means we provided the equivalent of 10.8 million meals for the nearly 60,000 southeast Missourians, who have utilized our food assistance programs each month,” said food bank Chief Executive Officer Joey Keys. “This impact in our communities would not be possible without our partners, which include our 140 member agencies, schools that distribute our weekend backpacks, mobile food pantry partners and most importantly our donors and volunteers.”

Southeast Missouri has some of the highest rates of hunger in the state with one in six households, and one in five children, being considered food insecure, which means they don’t have reliable access to enough nutritious food to meet their needs on an ongoing basis.

Other food bank highlights from 2019 include:

• Distributing 57,360 commodity supplemental food program boxes to 4,870 seniors. Each month participating seniors throughout the food bank’s 16-county service area receive a box with more than 30 pounds of food.

• Providing 554 students in 25 school districts with weekend backpacks that contain 10-12 pounds of food.

• Working with partners to hold 280 mobile food pantries. A mobile food pantry is when a food bank truck brings food to a specific location for it to be distributed to at least 200 participating families, who each receive 30-40 pounds of groceries.

• Working with 934 volunteers, who provided 6,586 hours of their time, which represents $152,000 worth of labor.

• Working with top retail donors Sam’s Club, Walmart, Refresco, Aldi, Kroger/Ruler Foods, Riceland Foods, CONAGRA, Tyson and others, which provided 2.71 million pounds of food in 2019.

• Keeping the organization’s overhead low so that 96.6% of every donation received goes back into programs. The food bank can provide four meals for every dollar donated.

The Southeast Missouri Food Bank, which was founded in 1985, will mark its 35th anniversary this year.

More details on its donors and services can be found in its 2019 annual report available on its website at SemoFoodBank.org or by calling 573-471-1818 to request a copy.

People interested in helping the food bank in its mission to “end hunger and leverage the power of food to build healthy communities” by volunteering, donating or partnering for a mobile may call at the number above or email lchurch@semofoodbank.org.