The Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation, or OACAC, is working to rally nonprofits, churches and individuals in the community to address impending food insecurity. SNAP benefits are expected to be halted in November due to the federal shutdown.
“This definitely affects the people that we serve,” Dumas-Bell explained. “We wanted to, you know, be at the table, with colleagues and partners across southwest Missouri and be part of the solution," said Lindsey Dumas-Bell, communications and development director for OACAC.”
OACAC is calling on businesses, churches, civic groups and volunteers to connect with them and host food collections with OACAC’s support.
They are also convening service providers, community partners and local leaders to “brainstorm a coordinated, community-wide response.” That meeting will be Wednesday, October 29, at 2 p.m. at Schweitzer Brentwood Branch Library.
Dumas-Bell said one in nine Missouri residents receive SNAP benefits.
“People will be facing: Do I pay my rent, or do I pay my utility bill or do I buy food?" she said, “or am I going from three meals a day to two meals or one meal a day? People will have very hard decisions that they will be making.”
OACAC is a Community Action Agency, a part of a network of federally funded private nonprofit agencies established by the federal government to address poverty. Find more information online at oac.ac.
Follow these links to RSVP for the Community Convening meeting Wednesday and to volunteer to host a food drive.