For Helping Hands Executive Director Jennifer Garrard, it feels like the need always exceeds the resources. All day, every day, she gets phone calls, emails, text messages and other requests for help.
In the first quarter of this year, Garrard said, Helping Hands served 522 food clients, with 188 of those being new clients. So when she heard Extra Table, a statewide nonprofit food bank, had added Helping Hands as one of its pantry partners, she felt like she had “won the lottery.”
“It feels like Christmas,” Garrard said. “I’m so excited. I could not stop being so happy the day (Extra Table) called and said we were in.”
The food pantry, located at 223 22nd St. N., received its first delivery from Extra Table on June 19, Garrard said, with more to come each month. The first pallet included pinto beans, canned pears, canned vegetables and ramen noodles.
Each pallet has a rough wholesale value of about $1,250, with a grocery store value of about $3,000, though the delivery Helping Hands received did not cost them a dime.
“I love my partnerships because they’re helping,” Garrard said. “They like that they’re helping us, and we like it because we’re giving food to people who can’t afford it.”
Extra Table announced it had added Helping Hands as a pantry partner in a Wednesday press release, along with four other pantries: Abbeville Food Pantry, First Baptist Church of Raymond, Samaritans Closet and Amory Food Pantry.
Extra Table purchases healthy, non-perishable food items from manufacturers with the help of food brokers Chow Purchasing. Volunteers then pack and deliver the food to 63 pantry partners in 53 counties across the state, all at no cost to the pantries or soup kitchens.
Garrard said she ended up meeting Extra Table leadership during the March of the Mayors canned food drive back in March. The nonprofit arranged for Garrard to take a delivery of food back from a packing event in Tupelo to the Columbus food pantry, and the partnership evolved from there.
“Bringing on new partners shows our commitment and our vision to lessen the hunger gap and feed our Mississippi neighbors,” Extra Table Executive Director Martha Allen said in the press release. “Our slow and steady approach allows us to be nimble while increasing the amount of food that ends up on Mississippi families’ tables – our ultimate goal. We always wish we could do more, of course, but this annual renewal of partners and the additions of new ones keeps us motivated to continue this work.”
Clients for Helping Hands must live in Lowndes County, and if they receive food stamps, it must be less than $400 monthly. The amount of food given is based on family size and clients can receive food every other month.
Helping Hands also provides sanitary supplies and monetary assistance to those in need, using grants and community donations.
Anyone needing assistance or wanting to donate can reach out to Helping Hands can reach out to (662) 328-8301. For more information on Extra Table, visit extratable.org.
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