Henry Leissing (who eventually becomes our Community Organizer), State Representative Patrick Daugherty and Rev. Robert Tabscott, Presbyterian minister in Des Peres, join forces to organize sourcing and delivery of perishable food. Known at first as the United Hunger Effort, the group also establishes a Food Stamp Hotline run by Lutheran Outreach Pantry. This soon evolves into a Hunger Hotline.

OFS distributes 200,000 lbs. of food each month, serving 106 pantries. The Hunger Hotline receives 1,957 calls.

Springsteen holds a concert in St. Louis and personally donates $10,000. He makes a personal appeal on behalf of Operation Food Search to those in attendance.

A 5-year lease is negotiated for a 3,000 sq. ft. of space on Dielman Rock Island Drive.

Our 1st Annual Golf Tournament is held at Hidden Valley, successfully raising $20,250 after expenses.

Sunny Schaefer becomes executive director.

High school and college students create hand-made ceramic bowls for an auction benefiting OFS. The event is held at Plaza Frontenac.

NFL champion Kurt Warner and his wife Brenda start an annual winter coat drive benefiting OFS.

The Federal Reserve Bank food drive collects more than 100,000 cans of food. Food drives continue to be a crucial part of OFS donations, now bringing in $1million worth of food a year.

Cardinals players Reggie Jackson, David Eckstein and Barry Weinberg greet fans, sign autographs and sell Schnucks chocolate chip cookies for this annual event, which began in 2002.

OFS begins providing weekly sacks of kid-friendly, shelf-stable food to get students through the weekend when school meals are not available.

Sponsored by Feast magazine, the inaugural Tomato Explosion campaign challenges local chefs to create tomato-focused dishes and raises nearly $8,000 for OFS.

In the 2012-13 school year, more than 110,000 backpacks are provided to students for weekend meal assistance.

223,000 backpacks are provided.

72,000 summer meals are distributed.

33,000 after-school meals help kids stay focused and active through the afternoon and into the evening.

OFS moves to a state-of-the-art distribution and nutrition education center (67,000 square foot facility).

Over the past 41 years, Dierbergs Markets has donated nearly $65 million worth of product and nearly $1 million in monetary contributions to OFS. Their annual register campaign for us, which began as “Hunger Never Takes a Vacation” in 1991 and collected $19,000, has grown to become multiple annual fundraising campaigns and in 2020 alone raised $278,428.98. In 2020 Dierbergs donated more than $2.1 million worth of food, which equates to a total of 1,272,957 pounds.

A broken water main results in several inches of standing water; However, there are only 1 ½ days disruption to food distribution.

Operation Food Search works to increase breakfast participation across the state and to showcase innovative approaches and best practices for school breakfast so that kids can start the day ready to learn.

With an operating budget of $36,329,553 and 35 Employees, OFS is continuing to meet the increased need for food caused by the pandemic while also addressing the root causes of food insecurity. We invite you to join us by learning more on our FACTS page.