Hunger

EXTRA TABLE USES 100% OF PUBLIC DONATIONS TO PURCHASE HEALTHY FOOD. 

With this guarantee, you can rest easy about investing in Extra Table. Feeding the hungry is our continual focus, and we’re doing just that by insuring that 100% of your donation feeds our hungry neighbors in your area. Our administrative funding is covered in other ways, so you don’t have to worry about a portion of your donation buying pens and pencils or paying the light bill.

ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS

The Extra Table Foundation or Admin Board, a support organization that enlists businesses and individuals from across the state to cover the administrative costs of office expenses and employees. Extra Table is a two-person operation run on a shoestring budget, so our needs are not enormous but the services we provide are critically important to meeting our objective of eliminating hunger in Mississippi.

At Extra Table, we apply business principles to our non-profit work. Providing food to the hungry is not a new concept, but the means by which Extra Table feeds the hungry is both keen and innovative. Extra Table has partnered with some of the nation’s largest food distribution companies to revolutionize the concept of fighting hunger in Mississippi. Our method of fundraising, food procurement and distribution is simply the most efficient and effective way to ensuring a constant source of healthy food be available to our neighbors in need.

Extra Table raises funds throughout the year to enable us to buy the freshest food available at the lowest price for the greatest number of people.Extra Table has done extensive research on the type of foods supplied to our food pantry and soup kitchen partners as well as polled our partners for their immediate needs.

Our pantry food list includes:

• Lean proteins i.e. chicken, tuna, peanut butter, dried beans
• Fruit with no sugar added or in 100% juice
• Low sodium vegetables, soup and pasta sauce
• Whole grains i.e. oats, grits, rice, pasta, granola bars

Not only is our food healthy, but every item is shelf-stable and well within the expiration dates. We fight hunger and obesity simultaneously by providing individuals that do not have a choice where their next meal is to come from with good food that offers HOPE for a better tomorrow. At Extra Table, we believe food is a basic human right that no one should do without. 

Our food meets daily nutritional requirements and supports the dietary needs of those struggling with obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. We take our food purchasing very seriously, and you simply won’t find junk in our bundles.

WHAT IS FOOD INSECURITY?
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food insecurity refers to the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods.

HUNGER IN MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi is FIRST in obesity and SECOND in both hunger and poverty (according to Friends Committee on National Legislation).

One-in-ten working Mississippians lacks food. Securing a job is simply not enough to guarantee a person won’t go hungry (finds Hunger Free America). In Mississippi between 2016 and 2018, nearly 12 percent of working adults lived in households that couldn’t always afford enough food. Nearly half a million people in Mississippi were and continue to be food insecure, making it the second hungriest state in the nation. Statistics are latest available and known to be extremely lower than actual, due to the 2019 pandemic and resulting economic crisis.

Extra Table works to support moms who can’t make ends meet no matter how many hours they work; families who have been left in the wake of a downturned economy; men who have worked their entire lives only to have to apply for disability and await a long approval process; and seniors whose Social Security isn’t as much as they had anticipated. Among the most consistent of pantry clients are low- and fixed-income seniors. In 2020, 17.7% of seniors (60+) have faced the threat of hunger in the past 12 months and are monthly participants in food pantries (United Health Foundation).

Prior to Covid-19, more than 600 thousand Mississippians struggled with food insecurity. Today, Extra Table’s food pantry and soup kitchen partners are realizing an additional 30-5-% increase in requests for food supplies.  Rethink Mississippi reports that 22% of Mississippi residents are food insecure.

For the 2019-2020 school year, Mississippi had approximately 357,000 children eligible for free and reduced-priced breakfast and lunch, or about 74% of children in participating schools. Many of these children, our future leaders, go to bed hungry each night (USDA).

Extra Table is the most innovative, efficient, effective and constant answer to fighting food insecurity in Mississippi.

Loyise is a retired nurse assistant who volunteers at her church. After paying her bills and rent, she doesn’t have much money left over, and her $17 per month in food stamps do not go very far. For the past two years, Loyise has depended on the food pantry during months when funds are low. Loyise is also a diabetic, making healthy foods and vegetables a vital part of her diet. “Being a diabetic is expensive, and I would not be able to eat the food I need to stay healthy without the help of Extra Table. I thank the Lord for the them and the people who give to them. Without it, life would be very rough”, Loyise says.