Southeast Missouri Food Bank to receive $15K grant

SIKESTON, Mo. (KBSI) – The Southeast Missouri Food Bank in Sikeston will receive a grant.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture approved more than $50,000 to put back into urban communities.

 The Missouri Department of Agriculture provided a food insecure cost grant to 17 different projects in Missouri.

The Sikeston food bank is the only project from southeast Missouri to receive funding.

Heather Collier is the relations and communications manager of Southeast Missouri Food Bank.

She explains what they will use the funding for. 

“We have $15,ooo that we can use to improve our capacity there, so were going to use that money to purchase new coolers and freezers,” said Collier. 

The grant was issued to help fight food shortages in urban areas and the Southeast Missouri Food Bank of Sikeston helps feed about thousand families a month, so the freezers and coolers will be a great asset.  

“Having additional freezer and cooler space really lets us be able to expand what we feed these neighbors,” Collier said. “People think of a food bank and they think of canned food items, and shelf stable things but we really do give proteins and produce so having that cooler space expands what were able to do with that.” 

If you or someone you know is struggling with food costs you can go to semofoodbank.org and click on the “Get Help” tab and you’ll see a list of all the agencies in your county.