Hunger Blog

Food Pantry in Memphis Benefits from Freezer Donation From Conagra Brands

The COVID-19 pandemic made it hard for many Mid-South families to purchase enough food. Businesses stepped up to help Mid-South Food Bank eliminate hunger and help those that needed it most. Conagra Brands donated more than 20 freezers to help our Partner Agencies preserve food. According to Feeding America, 12.1% of individuals living in urban communities face food insecurity. Mid-South Food Bank’s Partner Agency, Greater Harvest, is located within an urban community in Memphis. Grea...

Mississippi Company Gives Back to Celebrate Juneteenth

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – A local organization helped feed our hungry neighbors as a way to celebrate Juneteenth. ABLE, also known as African and Black Leadership for Excellence, is an organization within medical device company Zimmer Biomet in Southaven, Mississippi. Zwanardo Landfair, the leader of ABLE and lead supervisor at Zimmer Biomet, partnered with Mid-South Food Bank to host a Kid-Friendly Mobile Pantry. These distributions include foods that children can make without adult supervis...

Keeping Kids in Mind During Mobile Distributions

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Child hunger is a widespread problem. One of the ways Mid-South Food Bank fights this problem with our kid-friendly mobile pantry distributions. In partnership with the Memphis branch of the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), the Food Bank hosted a Mobile Pantry distribution at Getwell Elementary School in Memphis, Tennessee. The purpose of this pantry is to provide nutritious food that’s easy for children to prepare after school while their parents are working. ...

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...