Thousands of sweet potatoes donated to local agencies

A 44,000 pound donation of sweet potatoes arrived at the Wesley House on Thursday. The state-wide organization, Extra Tables brought the sweet potatoes from a farm in Mississippi. The sweet potatoes were given to 22 food pantries and churches in the East Mississippi area.

“We’ve been able to work with our area agencies-Multi-County, Feed by Faith, Love’s Kitchen and all those," said Executive Director of the Wesley House David Schultz. "Also we’ve contacted a number of the churches and we’re able to distribute by those.”

Ordering 2,000 pounds worth of sweet potatoes, Feed by Faith is able to expand their weekly food distributions because of the desperate need in the community during the pandemic.

“There’s a great difference in need right now because of the pandemic due to the lack of economic support," said Feed by Faith Volunteer Naerica Jones. "It’s going back to the community--something that someone can afford.”

Schultz says with their 6,000 pounds of potatoes, they’ll be able to service people for about a month at their weekly distributions.

“We’re seen such a tremendous increase in what we do with the food. We doubled since last January as far as the number that we have and we’re doing," said Schultz.

Extra Tables donated 7,000 pounds of uncooked chicken tenders to local nonprofits in January.

The Wesley House holds their weekly food distributions every Wednesday.