Mississippi Today
Lexington Food Pantry ‘ending hunger, giving hope’
In one of Mississippi’s most impoverished counties, at least 270 families and 415 individuals each month don’t go hungry.
That’s due to the Lexington Food Pantry.
Since 2021, the Lexington Food Pantry with the aid of the Mississippi Food Network has provided 104,501 meals in the high need Holmes County community, and, of the food provided, 22% has been fresh produce and 24% has been protein.
“Since Holmes County has the third highest poverty rate of all of MFN ‘s 56 counties at over 37%, this area has been a priority for the food bank. Mississippi Food Network is working to meet the needs in Holmes County with various programs, such as supplying the Lexington Food Pantry and serving seniors in other areas of the county,” said Cassandra Mobley, the chief operating officer of the food network..
The Jackson-based Mississippi Food Network, started 40 years ago, is a Feeding America affiliated food bank.
“The food bank was founded by a group of concerned citizens who were hoping to form a local hub for receiving food donations that could then be distributed to food pantries serving their local communities,” Mobley said. “In the first year, the food bank distributed about 139,000 pounds of food.”
At the end of this fiscal year, June 30, it had over 28 million pounds of food through its partnership network of over 430 partner organizations, she said. “That equates to 23,333,000 meals,” she said
“The food bank partners with nonprofit organizations or churches. These community organizations consist of food pantries, shelters, community kitchens as well as child feeding organizations and senior service organizations. The food bank’s child feeding efforts include backpack programs, afterschool meals, school pantries and summer meals. We serve seniors through two senior box programs that are provided to seniors 60 years of age on fixed incomes,” Mobley said.
In 2021, one of the Lexington Food Pantry’s Board members reached out to Mississippi Food Network to explore the possibility of a partnership. As part of that process, prior to becoming a food bank partner, the Lexington Food Pantry Board hosted a mobile distribution, and Mississippi Food Network provided the food. The relationship evolved into a full partnership agreement with the Lexington Food Pantry
Of Mississippi Food Network’s 56 counties, the only one that does not have a food pantry is Carroll County, Mobley said. But it is still providing resources to that county as well as other underserved areas, through direct service methods like mobile pantries and produce initiatives.
One of the most recent initiatives the food bank has introduced is connecting with Mississippi farmers to provide fresh products directly to their local communities. This initiative has allowed the food bank and local farmers a chance to connect but also given farmers the opportunity to provide for their neighbors in need.
Mobley says the future for Mississippi Food Network is more innovation to help those in need. “The Mississippi Food Network continues to expand our efforts to acquire more food as well as ensuring that the food is nutritious as we work in collaboration with other organizations to improve health outcomes for our citizens.”
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mississippi Food Network saw a significant increase in the number and amount of donations, Mobley said.
“In addition to the rates at which people were dying, the media attention placed a spotlight on hunger and food insecurity due to the supply chain issues grocery stores were facing,” she said. “Big grocery chains and food outlets could not stock their shelves in the same way they were used to, and there certainly was not enough food and grocery products left over to donate to food banks as there was prior to the pandemic. The public took note of this, and contributions to food banks like ours surged.
“We are not seeing the same levels of giving during this current rise in COVID-19 cases as we saw during the pandemic. This is probably because the current rise in cases is not dominating the news cycle as it did during the pandemic and food supply chain issues are nowhere near where they were during the pandemic. In that regard while donors, individuals, corporations and foundations, continue to give to food banks, the public is not as motivated to give at the levels we saw during the pandemic because, while the need is still here and still growing, the urgency of the need to do something about hunger and food insecurity does not appear to be as great as it was then.”
Mobley says she stays motivated because, “Mississippi has the highest food insecurity rate in the nation. The food bank’s mission is to continue to source food and provide to the over 430 partners we have in our state that serve their communities, like the Lexington Food Pantry.”
Lexington Mayor Robin McCrory said the Lexington Food Pantry’s mission is “ending hunger, giving hope.”
“Through the Mississippi State Extension Service and Aim for Change startup, Lexington secured grant funding to start our food pantry. You cannot partner unless you get nonprofit status and have a proven track record to handle inventory and distribute food,” McCrory said. “During the beginning of COVID-19, we distributed food boxes through the USDA Foods. Wwe had to meet the benchmarks through the Mississippi Food Network. “
Asked if there were an increase in assistance needed since COVID-19 cases have recently begun to rise, McCrory said the distribution rate has grown “over 50% in two to three months since the rise of COVID-19. “
“We also partner with Extra Table where they distribute to us fresh, healthy and nutritious foods. Hunter’s Harvest where we have the deer and wild game processed and distributed to the food pantry, and Society of Saint Andrews where food is gleaned through machinery on farm land and fields then picked and sent to the food pantry,” McCrory said.
“The future expansion of Lexington Food Pantry is that we will continue to work with our resources and give out more food boxes.”
Alexis Kenyatta Ellis is a freelance writer based in Lexington, Miss.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.”
A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Today’s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
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Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday life—whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
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We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we love—not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction “overly broad” in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as “federal intrusion into RDC’s budget” – especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
“But the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,” the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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