Mississippi’s three main food banks last year handed out 40 million meals across all 82 counties and had their largest-ever distribution of produce as a result of a new collaborative effort, food bank leaders said Wednesday at the Capitol.
Through the collaboration, food banks lean on one another and allocate resources more efficiently as federal support rapidly diminishes, said Michael Ledger, chief executive officer of Feeding the Gulf Coast. In 2023, his organization banded together with the Mississippi Food Network and the Mid-South Food Bank to better serve the nation’s hungriest state.
The organizations come together in times of crisis, such as the recent ice storm, during which they distributed over 160,000 meals. They also share information about partnerships and brainstorm ways to reach more people in the state. That solidarity is needed now more than ever, advocates say.
Nationwide, hunger is increasing while funds to address it are shrinking. As a result of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer, Mississippi will be responsible for $140 million in costs previously covered by the federal government to run its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the next two years.
Experts say people will lose benefits for multiple reasons:
Increased paperwork will inadvertently kick off eligible people; Fewer people will be eligible under new federally-mandated work requirements; Some states may further cut eligibility to afford the new costs.“Needs are going up, and we need to address it,” Ledger said. “It’s a harsh reality that people are going to see. As much as we can be ahead of it, the better.”
Theresa Lau, senior policy counsel at the Southern Poverty Law Center, applauds the work of food banks, but she said they cannot make up for the loss created by federal cuts to SNAP. And food banks shouldn’t have to, Lau said.
“The trouble is food banks are just one part of the equation,” Lau told Mississippi Today. “You can’t food bank your way out of some of this stuff. SNAP is the most effective anti-hunger program.”
That’s in part because SNAP dollars can help people get fresh, hot meals with more flexible hours and locations, and allow them to consider personal dietary needs.
About 1 in 8 Mississippians — or 334,000 people — use SNAP to put food on the table. More than 67% of participants live in households with children, and about 41% are in households with elderly or disabled adults. In four Mississippi counties, over a third of residents rely on the program to purchase food, according to a report from WLBT.
In October, the nation’s longest federal government shutdown in history paused food assistance for thousands of Mississippians. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves announced his priority was finding ways to restrict the use of food assistance benefits for the purchase of sugary food and drinks.
Talk of food assistance this year has been scant in the Legislature. However, the Department of Human Services did ask for $15 million to cover immediate SNAP costs. Bob Anderson, executive director of the department, cited it as the reason he wouldn’t request additional child care dollars, despite roughly 20,000 households sitting on waitlists for state-funded child care vouchers.
House Public Health Committee Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, authored a bill this year to invest in farms and help food banks distribute local foods, boosting both farmers and people who need access to food. But the bill died in committee this month. Creekmore said he hopes to revive it in other legislation, but he is unsure if he can secure funding.
The move is a no-brainer, said Creekmore, in a state whose economy is driven by agriculture and has among the highest rates of poverty and poor health outcomes.
“Let’s come up with the best practices to get the healthy foods that we grow to the tables of our most needy,” Creekmore said.
It’s “the best way the state can stretch their dollars,” Ledger said. He said his collaborative already has resources in place – truckers, drivers and warehouses – to stand up this kind of enterprise.
“It’s not like with other things where we have to build the infrastructure,” he said. “This is really just fuel to put in the car.”
Poverty drives hunger, but the reverse is also true, advocates say. Without access to reliable meals, people are less able to stay healthy, find jobs and stay in school.
“When somebody is fed, their opportunity to go out and get a job or do better in school or a grandparent trying to take care of a grandchild – it enables them to be functioning,” Ledger said. “It pays the community back.”
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