Thank you during Hunger Action Month

September was Hunger Action Month, when the staff of Southeast Missouri Food Bank challenged everyone in Southeast Missouri to take action to fight hunger in their community, all month long. Hunger Action Month was an opportunity to join a movement that has a real and lasting impact on our effort to feed more people in the region in need than ever before. Whether by advocating and raising awareness, making donations, or volunteering, individuals were encouraged to find a way that was right for them to make a difference during Hunger Action Month. Folks could refer to our "Thirty Ways in Thirty Days" for ideas on how they could help. The culmination of the monthly suggestions was to invite the public to join us for a new event "Party for the Good" which was a food packing event at the Osage Centre. Since the success of this event was "volunteer driven" we partnered with our friends at RSVP/VIC (Retired Senior Volunteer Program/Volunteer Intergenerational Center) to bring the "Party" to life.

We are happy to report that "Party for the Good" was a HUGE success! Over 1.000 people packed the Osage Centre and packed over 10,000 bags of food for the Food Bank's Backpack for Friday's child feeding program. We want to thank the city of Cape Girardeau for allowing us to use the beautiful Osage Centre, and our sponsors, Performance Food Service Middendorf/US Foods, The Bank of Missouri, Kohl's, Cape Electrical Supply, Southeast Snacks, Charlie's Music Revue, Horizon Screen Printing and Promotional Products, Younghouse Distributing, Inc., First State Bank and Trust Company, Inc., Southeast Health, Bluff City Beer for creating our banners, Eagles Aerie 3775, McAlister's Deli, Evening Optimist Club, Target, Sam's Club, Unilever, and Servpro.

We would also like to thank the SEMO University Sun Dancers and Miner Baptist Church youth band 14G for helping Charlie's Music Revue entertain the crowd. A special thank you to Jay Wolz for capturing the "Party" on film for us.

All of us at Southeast Missouri Food Bank and RSVP/VIC are grateful for the outpouring of support from the community and want to offer a heartfelt thank you to all who participated.