JACKSON, MS - Mississippi’s poultry and egg companies are kicking off the holiday season by donating 59,500 pounds of chicken meat and 129,000 eggs to charities of Governor Reeves’ choosing.

Governor Reeves has directed this generous donation of 369,200 servings of protein to the Mississippi Food Network and Salvation Army.

“I’m grateful to the Mississippi Poultry Association for always stepping up to help ensure no Mississippi family goes hungry during the holiday season,” said Governor Tate Reeves. “The Mississippi Food Network and the Salvation Army do a tremendous job serving Mississippians, and I thank them for accepting this donation to help end hunger in our state.”

“This has been a difficult year for many across the country, and the 32,000 employees of the state’s poultry industry want to help their fellow Mississippians this Christmas season,” said MPA Chairman of the Board Mack Walker of Tyson Foods. “We appreciate Gov. Reeves coordinating this effort.”

Since the program began, MPA members have donated 862,352 pounds of chicken and 1,882,600 eggs, which totals 5,332,008 servings of protein.

In addition to the 32,000 people that work in the industry and the 1,700 farm families that raise these chickens and eggs, another 66,400 jobs are generated because of the poultry industry. Poultry is Mississippi’s largest agricultural industry with a total economic impact of $27.8 billion.

These products raised on Mississippi farms come from Amick Farms, Cal Maine Foods, Koch Foods, Mar-Jac Poultry MS, Peco Foods, Tyson Foods and Wayne-Sanderson Farms. Each company individually donates products throughout the year to various charities, but they come together through the Mississippi Poultry Association once a year to make this donation.