Advertising grant may open avenues for Southeast Missouri Food Bank

Donations made to the Southeast Missouri Food Bank are typically in the form of cans or boxes, not billboards or television ads.

That changed Monday when the food bank was awarded $100,000 worth of advertising through the Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals' Advertising for a Cause grant.

"This will allow us to educate the community that they have neighbors in need and be a call to action to invite them to help us address this problem," said Karen Green, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Food Bank.

The food bank currently does not use any of its funds for advertising. It uses all its resources to support programs and services in 16 Southeast Missouri counties.

"This opens up doors for us that have never been opened before," Green said.

She believes the Advertising for a Cause grant will help the food bank deliver more food, expand its existing programs and recruit new volunteers in its fight against hunger.

Through the grant program, 10 media partners will develop and implement a multimedia public service campaign for the Southeast Missouri Food Bank.

FOX Radio, River Radio, Withers Broadcasting, KBSI, WSIL, Charter Media of Southeast Missouri, Poplar Bluff City Cable, DSW Signs, Bootheel Signs and Red Letter Communications have donated their production and placement services to fund the grant, which will be coordinated by Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals.

For the Southeast Missouri Food Bank, the grant comes at a time when the need for food is greater than ever as families displaced by recent flooding are returning home to find their food supplies are lost or damaged, Green said.

The food bank has been conducting mobile food pantries in several of Southeast Missouri's hardest hit communities during the past few weeks. It has also shipped thousands of pounds of supplies to local emergency responders and relief agencies for distribution.

About 40,000 people a month are served by the food bank and its partner agencies, but Green said this is only a portion of those who struggle to have enough food in Southeast Missouri. About 70,000 people in the region served by the food bank live at or below the poverty level, she said.

Agencies working with the food bank include food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters for the abused and homeless, senior resident programs, low-income children's programs and not-for-profit rehabilitation facilities.

This is the second Advertising for a Cause grant Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals has awarded. In 2009, Big Brothers Big Sisters received $40,000 worth of creative production and media placement.

Because the organization now has more members, it was able to offer a larger grant program this year, said Boyce Holt, Advertising for a Cause chairman. Tri-State is a not-for-profit organization made up of communications professionals in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and western Kentucky.

"The club realized back in 2009 that our highest calling as a professional organization was to serve the community in which we live and work," said Holt, owner of All Media Services in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Tri-State's public service committee and board of directors reviewed applications from 12 area not-for-profit organizations for the Advertising for a Cause grant.

"This year was a terrible dilemma because we had a number of applications that were extremely competitive," Holt said.

Other finalists were the United Way of Southeast Missouri and Court Appointed Special Advocates of Southeast Missouri. Tri-State is developing written profiles on all 12 applicants and posting them on its website, www.tristateamp.com.

mmiler@semissourian.com

388-3646

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3920 Nash Road, Cape Girardeau, MO

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