Manna Food Center

Manna Food Center, Inc. (the organization) is a nonprofit organization that is montgomery county, Maryland's largest community based organization that is focused on Food security and community health. For more than four decades, the organization has been a reliable "thread" in the social safety net for the vulnerable that require a supplement of nutritious Food and as a Center for education and action. The organization's work is built on three priorities that create an unique and comprehensive approach to hunger relief. Priority 1:strengthen and expand services collaboratively to address Food insecurity and community health more effectively. Priority 2: fortify our capacity and sustainability to optimize impact and support the future priority 3: advocate for healthy Food, a resilient Food system, and systems change. The organization distributes to an average of 5,500 families approximately 50 pounds of fresh vegetables, pantry stables, breads, and frozen meats each month. This program serves 40,375 individuals with more than 4.5 million pounds of Food. This program is run at 22 sites and includes delivery to qualifying families.

Community Food rescue (cfr): is a first-of-its kind, coordinated Food recovery network led by the organization and building on the former Food for agencies program. By partnering with a range of hunger relief organizations, volunteers and businesses, the initiative is making sure that edible Food reaches hungry neighbors. Cfr builds upon the work of establishments already recovering good Food before it is thrown away and identifies new donors. State-of-the-art technology makes real-time matches based on geography and transportation options. Trainings and mini-grants are offered to build capacity and increase food-rescuing capabilities.

Manna Food Center, Inc distributes Food through a network of almost 60 montgomery county public elementary schools. The program fills a critical gap by providing Food to children and their families during the school year to ensure they have nutritious Food to eat during the weekend. The program distributed 486,525 pounds of Food to nearly 30,000 children this past school year. One of the organization's newer initiatives, schoolbased pantries, continued to expand by 3 additional pantries resulted in the organization's almost doubling service numbers, supporting 10,700 school age children and families overall, including 45,515 pounds of produce and pantry staples at the pantries.

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