Coast shrimpers help fill local food banks during COVID with help from grant
The holidays are a time when people come together. Although COVID-19 has led to a lack In physical gatherings, it hasn’t stopped the kindness and generosity on the Coast.
Three organizations, Extra Table, Catch Together and Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, came together to not only feed hundreds of people In Mississippi, but also help the local shrimpers on the Coast.
In June, The Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United (MCFU) collected 1,500 pounds of king mackerel left over from a Biloxi fishing tournament and teamed up with the hunger relief organization Extra Table to clean, fillet and distribute the 1,500 pounds fish.
“People lined up and within a few hours it was gone,” said Ryan Bradley of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United.
Paul Parker with Catch Together, a organization which supports small, sustainable fishing operations, saw posts on social media after the distribution and wanted to get involved. He said the group looks for opportunities to help “progressive” fishermen who give back to their communities and that this was a project they wanted to get behind.
“We saw the impact the pandemic had with collapse of the restaurant marketplace,” Parker said. “And then we weren’t a month into the pandemic when we saw lines of people at food pantries and a lack of protein.”
The last two years have been especially hard on Mississippi shrimpers. Between the openings of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2019 and the reduced demand from restaurants due to the pandemic in 2020, fishermen and shrimpers have struggled to make ends meet.
“I told them (Catch Together) shrimp is a big thing right now and our guys are having a hard time staying fishing and going out because of COVID and everything shutting down,” Bradley said. “They presented us the opportunity to buy shrimp from our local fisherman just to donate them out.”
Through their grants funded by Multiplier, Catch Together worked with MCFU to purchase more than $50,000 worth of shrimp that was then processed and frozen at a Mississippi plant. That shrimp in turn was donated to Extra Table, who will be able to provide more than 36,000 meals across the state.
Martha Allen, executive director of Extra Table, said they’ve seen a great need over the year, reporting they’ve had a large increase in the need for food in 2020.
“We’re seeing so many people who have never been in a food pantry line are ending up there because of covid,” Allen said. “To know that we are able to help people who continuously put food on the tables in Mississippi and support another business through feeding hungry families in Mississippi is an incredible feeling.”
The shrimp will be distributed across the state in early January. Here’s a list of the local Coast food pantries that Extra Table partners with:
▪ Catholic Charities – St. Gerard, Waveland
▪ Hancock County Food Pantry, Bay St. Louis
▪ Our Daily Bread, Pascagoula
▪ The Lord is my Help, Ocean Springs
▪ Loaves and Fishes, Biloxi
▪ Long Beach Food Pantry, Long Beach
▪ Extend a Hand-Help a Friend, Gulfport