Please click here to read the article as published in Patch.com for Olivette, MO.
Operation Food Search (OFS), a non-profit hunger relief organization, recently received a $75,000 grant to support its policy work from MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. MAZON is a national advocacy organization working to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel.
MAZON funds a strategic grants program – the Emerging Advocacy Fund – to identify, seed and support new anti-hunger advocacy initiatives in the top food insecure states in the nation. MAZON prioritizes organizations in locations with underdeveloped anti-hunger advocacy ecosystems, high food insecurity rates and challenging political and social dynamics concerning the nutrition safety net.
“This generous grant enables our agency to dedicate specific resources to anti-hunger advocacy work,” said OFS’s Director of Policy & Innovation Trina Ragain. “MAZON’s partnership allows us to focus on food insecurity and its causes while advancing social and economic justice in the state of Missouri.”
Pictured left to right are Operation Food Search’s policy and advocacy team members Lyndsey Wilbers Cavender, Trina Ragain, Joanne Song and Sarah Ritter. Dan Ferris (second from left) and Sam Hsu (fourth from left) are with the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis.
Founded in 1981, Operation Food Search (OFS) is a hunger relief organization that provides food and nutrition education. With a strategic focus aimed at ending childhood hunger, OFS empowers families with a range of programs and services proven to reduce food insecurity and increase access to healthy and affordable food. The agency helps feed more than 200,000 individuals on a monthly basis – one-third of which are children – through a network of 330 community partners in 31 Missouri and Illinois counties. For more information, call (314) 726-5355 or visit www.OperationFoodSearch.org.