The noise made it hard to hear Thursday night in the gymnasium at Crawford Street United Methodist Church (CSUMC), but the sight of so many people volunteering made it easy to see people in Vicksburg care.

And hundreds of those people were in attendance, volunteering their time to help bag, pack and distribute a goal of 10,000 meals of red beans and rice for food banks throughout Warren County.

Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce Corporate Programs Director Chris Rials said the event was the brainchild of the chamber’s Young Professionals group, which partnered with the statewide Mississippi food bank Extra Table to make a difference in the lives of locals facing food insecurity. 

Both groups put to use a program called Extra Full, which chamber officials called an innovative new one-pot meal service for Mississippi.

Food pantries receiving the meals included: Beautiful Deliverance, a local nonprofit focusing on those recovering from addiction; Calvary Baptist Church; the Church of the Holy Trinity; City of Light Church; CSUMC; Crossway Church; First Baptist Church of Vicksburg; God’s Storehouse; Haven House; Hawkins United Methodist Church; House of Peace; Jackson Street Missionary Baptist Church; Lifting Lives Children’s Ministries; New Beginning Church in Christ; River City Rescue Mission; The Salvation Army; Storehouse Community Food Pantry; Triumph Church; Triumphant Baptist Church; Triumphant Missionary Baptist Church; and the United Way of West Central Mississippi.