March of the Mayors Extra Table Food Drive Underway

Extra Table kicked started its annual March for Mayors Regional Food Drive today. The event kicked off at Ingalls Shipbuilding Maritime Training Academy.

This is the 4th annual regional food drive. Each city partaking will have a selection of items to collect.

Ingalls Shipbuilding and its nearly 11,000 employees are taking part as this year’s sponsor. Executive Director of Extra Table Martha Allen shares how impactful the drive is to those who suffer from food insecurity in the state. “What this does, it allows us to tell our story, allows people to experience our story, allows people to understand the impact that we can have when we work together in the most efficient and effective way. So, some people can’t give their dollars but they want to participate and roll their sleeves up. And that too makes a difference in fighting hunger.”

Jase Payne, Gulfport Communications Manager says, “We’re asking everybody in Gulfport to deliver peanut butter to our fire stations now through the end of the campaign. All of our schools will get involved and so the kids will do peanut butter fundraising. So we really start from the educational level all the way up to our citizens.”

Over half a million people suffer from food insecurity in the State of Mississippi which is close to 1 in 6 people in the state.

Here is the list of what each Coast mayor is collecting:

• Pass Christian-Canned Corn
• Waveland- one pound bag of rice-donate to city hall, Ground Zero, and Waveland City Fire Department
• Bay St. Louis- one pound bag of beans- donate at city hall
• D’Iberville-spaghetti noodles- donate at D’Iberville police department and city of D’Iberville water department
• Diamondhead-15 oz. canned soup-donate at East Hancock Library, the Club of Diamondhead, Diamondhead Fire District, Hancock Chamber office, Rouses, city hall
• Gautier-Granola bars-donate at city hall, the police station, and fire departments
• Gulfport-peanut butter-donate at city fire station
• Long Beach-canned green beans-donate at city hall
• Moss Point- canned fruit- donate at Piggly Wiggly, Moss Point Police Departments, Moss Point Fire Department, city hall, Moss Point Recreation Center, Sue Ellen Gym
• Ocean Springs-canned fruit-donate at chamber of commerce, city hall, Central Fire Station
• Pascagoula-canned tuna-city hall