Last week, Extra Table, along with our regional sponsors and hundreds of volunteers, hosted “Mississippi’s Largest Food Box Packing Parties” across Mississippi. Broken into five regions, events in the Delta, Northeast Mississippi, the Jackson Metro area, the Pine Belt and the Gulf Coast packed tons of collected food. Those events resulted in 8,512 food boxes being packed and distributed in total!
Each box held shelf-stable items like peanut butter, canned tuna, fruit and vegetables, soup, pasta, rice, and beans. The food boxes weighed approximately 10 pounds each, and according to Feeding America, a “meal” is 1.2 pounds of food. With that in mind, 85,120 pounds of food makes for a grand total of 71,008 meals provided through March of the Mayors. Those food boxes were distributed to 55 food pantries across the state.
Number of food boxes packed (by region):
The Delta: 1,260
Northeast Miss: 1,152
The Jackson Metro Area: 1,440
The Pine Belt: 2,160
The Gulf Coast: 2,500
March of the Mayors is a statewide canned food drive, driven by the mayors of cities across Mississippi to collect food items to support their local pantries. Each city collected a particular food item between January 21 and February 21.
Sponsors
March of the Mayors is presented, regionally, by the following generous sponsors:
- The Coast – HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division
- The Pine Belt – Spire
- The Jackson Metro Area – Origin Bank
- The Mississippi Delta – Verizon
- The Northeast Mississippi area – Atmos Energy
Extra Table executive Director Martha Allen Price says, “We are honored that 50-plus mayors across the state fed their neighbors through March of the Mayors. Mississippi is one of the hungriest states in the nation with more than 550,000 food-insecure citizens. At Extra Table, we know the true impact this month-long food drive has on so many Mississippians, as it provides additional food to their tables.”
For more information on March of the Mayors, visit: extratable.org/march.
Extra Table is a statewide foodbank founded in 2009 by well-known restaurateur Robert St. John making a difference in the lives of Mississippians by fundraising to stock our 63 food pantry and soup kitchen partners across the state with wholesome nutritious food every month, at no cost to the food pantries and/or soup kitchens.
For more information on Extra Table, visit extratable.org.
