Ozarks Tech offers students two programs to help meet their immediate needs while also supporting long-term success: Fresh Harvest and Eagle Breakfast.
Improved retention and course completion rates demonstrate that these programs are powerful tools for student achievement. A hungry student cannot focus on studying or plan for a career. Sometimes, basic needs must be met first to lay the foundation for excellence.
Two common obstacles often crop up when addressing food insecurity: stigma and inconvenience. By improving access and reducing stigma, the college helps students take a step toward success, while ensuring no one feels singled out.
Fresh Harvest: From Farm to Campus
The seeds of Fresh Harvest were planted at Richwood Valley, a sprawling 84-acre campus in Christian County where agriculture students, faculty and staff have a garden. In the summer of 2024, after a bumper crop, Agriculture Department Chair Rob Flatness had an idea: Why not funnel student-grown produce directly back to students?
What began as an informal giveaway soon blossomed into a produce distribution program coordinated by the student resource team OTC Cares, along with the Agriculture and Culinary Departments. From midsummer through October, Flatness delivers around 300 pounds of vegetables weekly to the Springfield campus. Tables are piled high with zucchini, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and more.
“It was rare to have anything left at the end of the day,” said Sarah Bargo, College Director of Student Care & Engagement and head of OTC Cares. “Students picked it up almost as quickly as we could set it out.”
Fresh Harvest is free and open to all students, with no registration and no staffed table, just fresh produce for anyone who wants it. By removing barriers, the program supports both students’ well-being and helps fight stigma around food assistance.
“Fresh food is expensive,” Flatness said. “This gives us an opportunity to take what we’re already producing and put it in the hands of people who need it most.”
Access alone does not solve everything. OTC Cares staff noticed that some students hesitated to pick up unfamiliar vegetables, such as eggplant. Culinary students stepped in, creating recipe cards with easy meal ideas such as pesto grilled cheese and taco bowls. Bargo acknowledged that Fresh Harvest is not a complete solution to hunger.
“It’s something we can do that’s low-cost, sustainable and effective,” she said. “It’s nutritious, and it’s making a difference.”
Fresh Harvest’s impact has drawn outside attention. Vital Farms, a nationally recognized brand with an award-winning egg-washing and packing facility, Egg Central Station, in Springfield, has pledged support for the program’s continued growth.
Eagle Breakfast: A Meal with Momentum
At every Ozarks Tech location, Eagle Breakfast helps students start the day on solid footing. The program offers a free morning meal to all students, turning what could be a stigmatized service into a campus-wide perk.
Menus vary by campus, from breakfast sandwiches to biscuits and gravy with fruit and a drink. To receive a meal, students provide an ID number, allowing participation to be tracked discreetly while protecting privacy.
The impact is measurable. According to the Ozarks Tech Office of Research, students who participate are retained at a rate seven percentage points higher than those who don’t — 91% versus 84%. The advantage holds for Pell-eligible students as well, with an 88% retention rate compared to 81%. Course completion shows a similar pattern: participants finish their classes at an eight-percentage point higher rate — 83% versus 75% overall, and 80% versus 72% among Pell students.
The idea for a free student breakfast first surfaced during a faculty and staff competition offering $10,000 grants for new initiatives. It didn’t win, but the proposal caught the attention of Chancellor Hal Higdon. Within months, the first iteration of the program launched at Café 101 in January 2021.
“That was our first step into really trying to destigmatize some of these resources that we have for students,” Higdon said. “We were intentional about making sure it was part of the student experience and open to everyone.”
By the following year, Eagle Breakfast had expanded to every Ozarks Tech location. Today, it is a fixture of campus life.
More Than a Meal
A sustainable composting program launched by the college’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter, Alpha Psi Tau, completes the farm-to-table cycle. Culinary staff at the Springfield campus collects food waste for composting at Richwood Valley.
By pairing practical resources with an open-to-all approach, Ozarks Tech is removing obstacles that can derail student progress. The results — higher retention, stronger completion rates and a greater sense of belonging — point to a simple truth: when students do not have to worry about their next meal, they are better equipped to succeed in the classroom and beyond.