HATTIESBURG, Mississippi: With #GivingTuesday and the holidays here, Extra Table is unveiling a plan to raise needed funds to continue and sustain its feeding programs throughout the state. With Mississippi being the most food insecure state in the United States, with 1 in 5 Mississippians unsure if they can afford their next meal, Extra Table has lots of funds to secure in order to continue its 10-year tradition of providing healthy meals to pantries on a monthly basis.
Merry Mississippi, an online auction of the 12 most unique Mississippi items and experiences, kicks off THIS THURSDAY and runs for 12 consecutive days.
Want to go to Italy with Robert St John and Wyatt Waters this year? With Merry Mississippi you can bid on all that and so much more! The Merry Mississippi online auction will begin this Thursday, December 5 and will go on for 12 days. Every day one new item will be released at 5 a.m. and the auction for that item will close nightly at 8 p.m. with another item going up for sale again the following morning at 5 a.m.
“The holidays are such a busy time of year and all our shopping list are long so we have made this easy. At Extra Table, we have gathered the wildest, most amazing items and experiences all reflective of the talent, nature and history that define our great state,” stated Martha Allen, Extra Table’s executive director. “We have put a price tag on these items just for you with our goal being to raise needed funds so that we can continue providing food to our hungry neighbors right here in Mississippi.”
HINT: the first auction item requires you to find your passport and start brushing up on your Italian.
“We’ve got a really, really cool thing happening at Extra Table called Merry Mississippi,” founder of Extra Table Robert St John explains. “I’m excited because I get the first auction item! Wyatt Waters and I are donating a trip to Tuscany, all expenses paid, you’ll cover airfare, we’ll cover everything else. We’re going to do food, art, culture, wine! It’s going to be a blast in one of the coolest, most beautiful places and that’s Tuscany!”
The Merry Mississippi online auction items consist of everything from private art lessons with Wyatt Waters, trips to Italy with Wyatt Waters and Robert St John to weekends at the Beau Rivage with KISS concert tickets and golf at the finest courses in our state. There are VIP passes to two PGA tournaments where you will eat, enjoy and mingle with the players. The Mississippi Football Legends Dinner will be hosted by Rick Cleveland. You and your 3 best friends will enjoy a 5-course dinner at Purple Parrot Cafe and conversation with Archie Manning, Brett Favre and John Bond. The handbag designer, Kelly Wynne, has donated a piece of luggage from her brand-new Travel Collection. The sale of this duffle will be the very first piece sold out of her collection. Van Atkins Jewelry, McCarty Pottery and Viking are providing private getaways that can only be found through the Merry Mississippi Auction. Prairie Wildlife Quail hunting, deep sea Red Snapper fishing and art by the internationally known Mississippi artist William Dunlap for purchase.
Allen notes it is time to log on to the auction site – bid, bid big and bid often she says. “Extra Table needs your support in order to continue our 10-year tradition of feeding healthy foods to the masses in Mississippi through the most efficient and effective way possible.”
Extra Table’s Mission
Extra Table is a non-profit organization with a mission to fundraise in order to supply healthy, shelf-stable food in bulk, from partner Sysco, to Mississippi food pantries and soup kitchens so that our hungry neighbors can have nutritious, shelf-stable meals they so need. Extra Table was founded in 2009 by Chef Robert St. John of Hattiesburg. Today, Extra Table partners with 39 food pantries and soup kitchens and one food hub. 100% of the funds raised from this event will be used to provide wholesome nutritious food to food pantries and soup kitchens state-wide.
You can catch all the details of Merry Mississippi by visiting Extra Table’s website or social media pages. For more information, call 601-264-0672.
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