Hunger Blog

Mask Giveaway at 16 Mobile Pantry Distributions

Volunteer Memphis will give away 20,000 masks during their Free Masks Mid-South program November 17 to December 22. Volunteers will join with the Mid-South Food Bank to hand out the masks at sites across the Mid-South. The masks will be handed out during 16 different Mobile Pantry distributions in four Mid-South counties over the span of the program. Anyone in need can pick-up free food and a mask at any of the giveaway locations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

In Tunica County- Sheriff’s Office Reaches Seniors, Families with Food Boxes

In Tunica County, Miss., efforts by the Sheriff’s department to help seniors and other residents struggling with food insecurity have been ramped up because of COVID 19’s arresting consequences. Every week officers and other department employees are delivering over 25 boxes of nutritious food from Mid-South Food Bank to residents’ homes. “I can’t tell you how much this means. I’m really thankful for this,” said Patricia Savely, when she was visited b...

Food Assistance, Volunteers Keep Family Positive

For all the setbacks, challenges and uncertainties there’s been some good that’s emerged from the pandemic, says Gabriel Moreno. The Memphian, who lost his maintenance job because of the virus and who is now cutting yards for income, visited a Mobile Pantry in May. “We are optimistic, and a big reason for it is because of the food from the Food Bank – it’s great,” said Morena, father of three girls who attend White Station Middle, White Station Elementary ...

Mom Who Lost Waitress Job Comforted with Help from Mobile Pantry

For Derika Walker, access to nutritious food at a Mid-South Food Bank Mobile Pantry for her household that includes her husband, teenage son, sister and mom, has shaped her hope and resilience. The food is “amazing,” she said. “I don’t know think my family and I would survive without the help,” she reflected. Walker visited the Mobile Pantry held near her home, hosted by the Memphis SLIM House music collaboration that’s affiliated with the Stax Museum of ...

Need for Emergency Food Assistance Spans Zip Codes

While poverty was a challenge before the call to wear masks and keep safe distancing, its most noticeable symptom, food insecurity, has harshly emerged in almost every income level due to the pandemic. Case in point: Kim Smith is an administrative assistant at FedEx. While she has not lost her job so far, her husband’s employer sliced his hours starting a month ago. The couple, who tend to their grandchildren, Kadien, 8, and Jacob, 6, have lost $4,000 in monthly income, she said. They...

Friends Get Help Together at Mobile Pantry

Extra Porter and her friend Fred Lenoir heard about the food available at the emergency Mobile Pantry distribution at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church. The two retired seniors arrived together in separate cars at the East Memphis church’s parking lot on a Friday morning when the very last of the allotment of food was waiting for them. Both received bags of apples and spinach and more. Both planned to share the food with neighbors. “For myself, I just moved into an apartment and I ...

Disabled Veteran Finds Food and Hope at St. Michael's Pantry

Michael Kuykendall, 64, is a disabled Vietnam veteran living with his service dog, Kelo. Recently, caretaker Linda O'Hara escorted him to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, at St. Michael Catholic Church, to help him receive some much-needed food recently. Kuykendall said it has been 10 years since a life-threatening incident altered his life. He was standing under a tree in South Memphis when lightning struck the ground nearby. "There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The lightni...

MealConnect A New Tool to Get Fresh Prepared Food to Pantries

MealConnect A New Tool to Get Fresh Prepared Food to Pantries Volunteers in the kitchen at St. Vincent DePaul Food Mission were busy organizing and refrigerating 48 large trays filled with cooked food Oct. 21st, a Monday. The supplemental, prepared food arrived from volunteers who picked up the excess food from the weekend’s two-day Mempho Music Festival at Shelby Farms Park. The food, ranging from fried chicken, to burgers, to bacon, to country ham is “fantastic,” said St...

Food Pantry Boosts One Client’s Independence, Despite Disability

Using his walker, Rickey Murrell treks several blocks from his home near the University of Memphis to get his rolling basket filled with needed food at the food pantry at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. He lost his sight about 17 years ago, but he’s not lost his laugh, vitality or self-reliance. “It’s part of my routine, coming here,” the 61-year old former landscaper said. “The food is good – I especially like the snacks and meats.” He is...

BackPack Boxes Provide Food, Stress Relief in Orange Mound

Hanley Elementary faculty have long recognized that too many of its students were coming to the Orange Mound area school from homes where food insecurity pervades. The issue was a real-life problem beyond nutrition, affecting students’ inability to focus on studies and creating some behavioral issues in the classroom.  “It really hurt the staff and me when we would hear a student come to school on Monday saying he or she didn’t get enough to eat over the weekend,&...