Image courtesy of Extra Table.
Extra Table
Sixteen years ago, when a food pantry in Hattiesburg found itself in dire need, the operators called local restaurateur Robert St. John. Little did they know that they were creating a bridge between two worlds—that of nonprofit agencies fighting food insecurity in Mississippi and the state’s robust restaurant scene—that would come to feed thousands of Mississippians.
The call alerted St. John to the pressing issue of food insecurity in Mississippi, where more than 16% of the population faces uncertain access to food. He quickly collaborated with his wholesale food distributor, Sysco, to get the pantry the food it needed, but he felt he could do more.
“I learned that the model to collect food for the food insecure had been very inefficient,” said St. John. He explained that when schools and other organizations conduct canned food drives, the result is often a hodge-podge of donated food items. “It takes hours to sort the food, and when cooking for many people, it takes forever to open each of those cans. When the canned food goes to a food bank, families may get random items like a can of blueberry pie filling. That may be all a kid coming home from school has to eat until the next morning, and that is not very nutritious.”
Image courtesy of Extra Table.
Extra Table
Realizing that, with his connections to Sysco through his restaurants, he might be able to offer something better, St. John approached the distributor with the concept for Extra Table, a nonprofit that donates family-friendly, nutritious, shelf-stable food to agencies and pantries across Mississippi. Sysco agreed to participate, a board was formed, and the mission was underway.
Extra Table planted its flag with two main goals: for 100% of the money raised to go toward food, and to always provide healthy food. St. John and the board also hoped to someday be present and active in every county in Mississippi. Today, the organization partners with sixty-three food pantries and soup kitchens in fifty-one of the state’s eighty-two counties. “We served over six million meals last year, and we still have some growing to do,” said St. John. Early on, he dreamt of taking the organization even beyond Mississippi. “We got a little traction in Louisiana but realized we might be less effective if we started spreading out too far.”
“We served over six million meals last year, and we still have some growing to do." —Robert St. John
Under the leadership of Martha Allen-Price, the organization’s executive director, Extra Table faced the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic—which included higher food costs, less availability of volunteers with social distancing protocols, and a greater demand—with adaptability. They partnered with Chow Purchasing, a food purchasing company for restaurants based in Mississippi, a collaboration that continues today. “They work to get us the best price on the healthiest food by the truckload,” said Meagan Burkes, Extra Table’s director of strategic communications and development. Burkes gave the example of someone donating a jar of peanut butter. “They may spend five dollars on a jar of peanut butter, but if they would donate money instead, with those donor dollars we can purchase three or four jars of peanut butter. But even better, we may be able to purchase peanut butter by the case through Chow and get that for the same amount as one jar of peanut butter from the grocery store.” Burkes said that Chow Purchasing uses their skill sets and industry connections to source 18-wheelers filled with food from producers and suppliers around the country, often below wholesale cost. “We use Chow’s warehouse, and they have a dedicated driver who spends two weeks each month delivering pallets of food to the agencies we partner with, at no cost to them.”
Despite having to navigate the challenges of the pandemic and change within the organization, Extra Table still distributed 5.9 million pounds of food in 2020. “And that was when Martha was our only employee,” said St. John. “She is a machine.”
Image courtesy of Extra Table.
Extra Table
In addition to the organization’s monthly donors—the lifeblood of Extra Table—to keep the operation running, St. John and the team host a variety of fundraising events throughout the year, including the much-anticipated Bourbon Festival in Jackson, during which premium bottles of bourbon are auctioned off, and bartenders from area restaurants participate in a cocktail competition.
Another popular event is the Farm to Fork Ride or Run, which will take place this year in Hattiesburg on April 24 and 25. “We have participants from all over the state, as well as from Louisiana,” said Allen-Price. And every year, the Empty Bowls event serves participants a handcrafted bowl made by Delta State University art students to fill with soup provided by area restaurants.
A new program, overseen by Allen-Price, called “Extra Full: Red Beans & Rice,” is a collaboration with food scientists at Mississippi State University, nutritionists at the University of Southern Mississippi, Reed Food Technology, and other companies to create a four-serving, one-pot meal product that can be cooked in thirty minutes and is packed with vitamins and nutrients.
“We partnered with Mike Wagner, owner of Two Brooks Farm in the Mississippi Delta, for our rice,” said Burkes. “The seasoning mix has twenty-two added vitamins and nutrients that are missing in many Mississippians’ diets.” Volunteers from churches, schools, and other groups assemble the kits at packing parties conducted by Extra Table. “We load up a truck and set up the packing stations. When the volunteers arrive, they don gloves and hair nets and go to work scooping, weighing, and sealing. In only one hour, 100 volunteers can pack 2500 meal kits that feed four servings per kit. That’s 10,000 meals.”
St. John said that he is proud of how the organization has grown and believes this is the work he is meant to help facilitate. “I was in the right place at the right time to be a vessel for this to happen,” he said. “I am very proud of Extra Table, and very humbled by the leadership, the volunteers, and the donors. We have stayed true to our process, and we have fed a lot of people.”
