JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Leaders with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith joined representatives from the Mississippi Food Network (MFN) on Monday. They discussed the Farmers to Families Food Box program.
So far, more than 705,000 food boxes have been distributed in Mississippi. The program is a USDA-led effort designed to assist families, farmers and food distributors who have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to a partnership between the USDA and MFN, more boxes will be delivered in October. Greg Ibach, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, said food insecurity has been an issue for a long time.
“Hunger is a problem across America, even in good times, and it’s a tough problem to try and address because it has so many different causes and reasons. But when people lose their jobs unexpectedly and immediately and in large numbers, it puts stress on our foodbank system,” Ibach stated.
The food boxes used to be broken up between fruits, meat and dairy. Now, the boxes will be a combination of the three to give people more of a balanced box.
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