August 11, 2021 — The past year was hard for Cy Tandy. He is the director of IONA House, a 34-year-old food pantry in Jackson, Mississippi. The economic downturn caused by the pandemic doubled the number of people who came to the pantry in need of food. But in the tough year, there were bright spots. For the first time, the IONA House was able to give its clients fresh, locally caught shrimp.
“Our clients, they loved it,” Tandy said. “Seafood, that’s part of our culture in South Mississippi and Louisiana.”
The Hattiesburg-based charity Extra Table distributed 13,000 pounds of peeled shrimp to food banks and food pantries across the state. All the shrimp was purchased by Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United with money from Massachusetts organization Catch Together.