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The Rolla Nutrition Site in Rolla serves hot meals to eligible seniors in its cafeteria Monday through Friday and delivers meals to homebound seniors in Phelps County.  Last year, the group served 56,782 meals.

Give Ozarks is a 24-hour online day of giving on May 3, 2016. Six Phelps County nonprofits—Rolla Nutrition Site (RNS), ABLE Senior Center, Ozark Actors Theatre (OAT), The Community Partnership, CASA of South Central Missouri and The Kaleidoscope Discovery Center––are participating in this event that is coordinated by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. This is a series to learn more about Give Ozarks and how these groups will use the funds raised. Rolla Nutrition Site is the fifth to be featured. To make a donation on May 3, go to GiveOzarks.org and locate your agencies of choice.

ST. JAMES—Give Ozarks is a one-day, online fundraising event for agency partners of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Using the power of the Cause Momentum crowd-funding website, nonprofits from across southern Missouri will have the chance to raise funds, compete for matches and prizes, and be a part of a one-day surge in generosity across the state. Give Ozarks is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3, 2016.

Rolla Nutrition Site, located at 1440 Forum Dr., Rolla, has chosen to participate in the Give Ozarks 24-hour online fundraising initiative this year for a very good reason.

“Funds raised through Give Ozarks will help us continue to provide a nutritious meal service to all eligible seniors in the Phelps County area,” said Joanne Zap, volunteer at the site.

The site delivers nutritious meals to homebound seniors in Phelps County and hot meals are served Monday through Friday in the cafeteria. Last year, the site served 56,782 meals to Phelps County seniors and, of those, 49,733 were home delivered and 7,049 were cafeteria-style. Each meal costs around $2.20. The site is hoping to raise $5,000 during the Give Ozarks event to help support the program.

“Maybe we have served your loved one, mother, father, aunt or uncle, grandparent, friend or neighbor,” Zap said. “For many seniors, the meal program is vital to their continued independence.”

To help raise awareness for the Give Ozarks event, the Rolla Nutrition Site and ABLE Senior Center will be partnering on an open house at the Holloway House from 3 to 7 p.m. on May 3. Pork sandwiches, chips, cookies and water will be available from starting at 4 p.m. and will be served as long as the food lasts.

Other nonprofits in the Meramec Region who are participating in Give Ozarks include the Bonebrake Center and Riverways Pregnancy and Family Resource Center, both in Salem; Bourbon Boosters Club, Cuba All Aboard Learning Center, Osage Trail Legacy and Steelville Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry, all in Crawford County; Missouri Rock Island Trail and Missouri Rock Island Trail-Owensville, both in the Owensville area.

May 3 is Give Local America Day when community foundations across the country will be holding similar online fundraising events to boost resources for their local nonprofits encourage new donors and raise awareness of philanthropy in general. Online giving days, a growing movement in the philanthropy field, have raised millions of dollars for nonprofit organizations over the past six years.

Meramec Regional Community Foundation (MRCF), chaired by Rolla banker Wayne Parry, is promoting Give Ozarks. MRCF is an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks (CFO), which is hosting Give Ozarks with presenting sponsor BKD Wealth Advisors and platinum sponsors The Musgrave Foundation, The Commerce Trust Co./Coover Charitable Foundation and Ron and Janice Penney. The CFO is a regional public charitable foundation, founded in 1973, which includes 45 affiliate foundations and nearly 600 nonprofit partners and schools.

Give Ozarks nonprofits will be eligible for a number of prizes, based on their success raising funds and also the number of supporters who make online donations on May 3.