FRESH NEWS February 2020

Midnight MANNA

A Night of Service and Fun

Saturday night is prime socializing time for high school students. But this past Saturday, from 9 pm to midnight, almost 100 high schoolers gave up that precious Saturday night to come and spend the evening donating their time to help address hunger in the mountains.

For the last eight years, Asheville Youth Mission (AYM) has organized an event that gives students an opportunity to have fun, and make a lasting impact, affectionately called Midnight MANNA. AYM Director Rev. Michael Poulos has been participating in this event since 2013, and knows first-hand how to engage a group of high schoolers around a mission of compassion and philanthropy. 

“Midnight MANNA brings together a lot of what makes Asheville great,” says Poulos. “It’s a great way for local church youth groups and high school service clubs to come together for a common good. The awesome service work, local music, and food create an opportunity for young people to come together and hang out while doing good work for the community.” 

Throughout the evening, The Secret B-Sides played an energizing set of soul-tinged music as students worked on their projects. To add some flavor, Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack and other local restaurants provided food for everyone to enjoy throughout the night. The live music and food created a fun and unique vibe for the teens to enjoy while putting their hands to work on food that is being distributed across WNC this week.

This year, this dedicated crew helped prepare over 20,000 lbs. of canned black beans, carefully checking each can for quality and safety, labeling, and packing into boxes for easy distribution across the 16 counties of MANNA’s service area. 

“MANNA’s mission to end hunger is directly impacted by volunteer support,” says Lisa Reynolds, MANNA’s Director of Operations. “These students are part of a very important volunteer corp who help make it possible for MANNA to distribute over 45,000 meals-worth of food every day of the year. We simply couldn’t do it without them.” 

One of the most important things you can do to fight hunger is vote. Make sure you are registered to vote and know of North Carolina's new voting districts. You can vote for the March 3rd primary in February as part of early voting.

From February 13th-19th, you have the ability to vote early. Take a second to find out if you're registered and where you're nearest polling station will be.

To stay up to date with voting, census and legislative information, consider joining the MANNA Advocacy Newsletter!

Mast General Store's Sweet Campaign to Fight Hunger

It's easy to open your heart and be a sweetheart this February at Mast General Store!

On February 8th and 9th, Mast General Store's Asheville, Hendersonville, and Waynesville locations will be helping fight hunger by donating a dollar to MANNA for every pound of candy sold. That means each pound of candy sold will provide 4 meals for families struggling to fill their plates in WNC.

Be sure to stop by Mast General Store next weekend to pick up some sweets for your sweeties, while helping to feed your neighbors!

Ambassadors are the voice of MANNA. They table at farmer's markets, fairs and community events to talk to people about MANNA's mission. Ambassadors engage in conversations about the need in our community and encourage people to get involved with MANNA through donations, volunteerism, and advocacy work.

On February 28th, we'll be having an Ambassador training for those interested in representing MANNA at community events throughout WNC.

If you are interested, please contact [email protected] for more information or to register.

We would like to thank the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for their long-term support and for providing funds for the following programs:

The Community Foundation of Henderson County has been an incredible partner and we would like to thank them for assisting with the following:

Food Bank Fact: By donating $21 a month, you can provide enough meals to feed someone three times a day for an entire month!

If you're interested in making monthly gifts, some benefits include:

To set up online, click the donate button below and choose the monthly option.

To donate by check or to use your credit card by phone, call Libby Barker at 828-299-3663 x1238. (For the sake of security, please do not email credit card information.)

Help feed WNC by setting up a monthly donation.

Your Voice Matters:

Advocate for those experiencing poverty.

MANNA's mission is to involve, educate, and unite people in the work of ending hunger, and an important part of this mission is advocating for those living in and experiencing the effects of poverty.

As a non-partisan organization, dedicated to sharing information about the issues affecting the people we serve together, MANNA does not endorse political parties or candidates. We simply ask people to work with our elected officials to make legislation that works for us all, and makes our region, our state, and our country stronger from the ground up.

If you are interested in receiving advocacy-related emails from MANNA FoodBank, please click the button below. By clicking here, you are signing up to receive information from MANNA about ways you can use your voice, and actions you can take, to help work towards our vision of a hunger-free Western North Carolina.

Give. Volunteer. Advocate.