FRESH NEWS January 2019
Monthly News from MANNA FoodBank
Unforeseen Circumstances:
What happens when we face a large-scale food access crisis?
As you know, MANNA is a non-partisan organization dedicated to providing information on issues that could affect the lives of the people we serve. Therefore, it is important to look at the potential impacts of the government shutdown.

Working families who had felt secure are now facing the reality that their next pay check may not come. And perhaps the one after that.
As many wrestle with the fact that they too may not be able to afford their most basic needs, rest assured MANNA will continue to stand up alongside our incredible community and provide food with hope and dignity to people in need throughout Western North Carolina.

What’s On MANNA’s Radar
First, and most immediate, we all have concern for federal workers now going on a fourth week without pay. Many families once feeling secure in their lives are today facing the reality that they soon may not have enough money to meet their most basic needs.
The second effect, if this shutdown continues indefinitely, could be the large-scale food emergency that thousands of households would face should SNAP benefits cease. For every 1 meal provided by MANNA and the Feeding America network of food banks, SNAP provides 12.
And third—an ongoing challenge magnified in times of unforeseen crisis—is the serious issue of food access. The shutdown is putting many families closer to potential crisis circumstances that require a significant increase in resources and support.

A Family-Level Crisis: Local Federal Workers Missing Income
With your help, MANNA FoodBank and our network of partner agencies serve over 100,000 people in Western North Carolina throughout the year who find themselves in a situation of needing food assistance. The majority of the people we serve are working families with children and elders, faced with high living costs and a bare minimum budget – the absolute basics – that their income doesn’t cover.
If we all take a moment and think through what it would mean for our own families or loved ones if we missed one paycheck, two paychecks…six paychecks, or even months’ worth. We can picture the financial strain it would place on our mortgages and rent, bills, medical expenses, and our grocery budgets.

Large Scale Consequences: The Ripple Effects
At this point, none of us can predict how long the shutdown will last. However, if it should continue beyond the end of February, the vital lifeline of SNAP would be in jeopardy and millions of people across the country who depend on SNAP will no longer have the supplemental nutrition they need to get by.
It is crucial that we truly understand the scale of the consequences of not receiving SNAP benefits. While we will continue to provide food through our network of 200+ food partners, MANNA would need to amplify our distributions by 12x in order to bridge the gap that the loss of SNAP benefits would create.

Giving Hope
We are so very thankful for our incredible community network of partners and supporters that have come together and grown stronger each year.
Together, with your support, we will grow to meet the need to ensure that we are able to feed each and every child, senior, neighbor, and family throughout our community.
For our neighbors that need help today, and those worried they may need to start receiving help tomorrow, MANNA stands at the ready to serve our community and provide food with hope, and dignity.
MANNA Pop-Up Markets:
More Food to More Places Across WNC
In the summer of 2018, MANNA launched a pilot program to provide more perishable foods to communities across WNC. MANNA’s primary food distribution program operates through a dedicated network of over 200 partner nonprofit agencies serving communities across the 16-county region, but with the need for food on the rise, there are struggling communities who might not have a local partner agency in their region. In order to address the need for support in communities where there might be little, if any, food support available, MANNA started the Pop Up Markets.

MANNA Pop Up Markets operate on a simple premise: Community members can contact MANNA, and host a market, even if they don’t have a brick-and-mortar location. In fact, community members need not be an organized nonprofit—anyone who can find a space to host the farmers market-style Pop Up Market can help provide food to their community. Once a community member has established a place and a time, MANNA brings a truck full of fresh foods and other staples for a free community distribution. Community members can then show up with bags to bring food home to their families.

Since launching the pilot last summer, MANNA has already partnered with WNC communities and individuals for more than 20 markets, and provided an average of 2,500-3,000 pounds of food at every market. 

Raise a Glass to Milk Partners!
MANNA's Chief Operations Officer, Jill Hanson, and Feeding America's milk advocate and national account manager, Jerod, met with our friends at Milkco, Inc. back in October to tour Milkco's incredible facilities located right here in WNC.

Did you know Friday, January 11 was National Milk Day?! How fortuitous that we also met with  The Dairy Alliance  to discuss opportunities to increase access to milk for families across WNC!

So, have a glass of milk today, and celebrate what these wonderful partnerships will help provide to the more than 100,000 people we serve across WNC every year.
GIFTS, AWARDS + RECOGNITION
A Much-Needed Donation:
A New Set of Wheels
MANNA is the happy recipient of a wonderful car donation, thanks to Bill and Lane Waas! MANNA is a highly mobile organization, with many wheels on the ground across over 6,400 square miles of our service area. Our staff and volunteers are dependent on reliable transportation to make sure we can provide the kind of assistance and service that our partner agencies and clients need. This donation is an important resource to MANNA and our work across the mountains.
Bill Waas poses with MANNA's Chief Development Officer, Mary Nesbitt, and the car that he and his wife Lane donated to MANNA. This car donation will go a long way towards helping MANNA continue to stretch every resource to meet the growing need for food in WNC.
Wells Fargo Gives Back
Members of the local Wells Fargo team came together to make an impact for WNC families facing hunger with volunteer event this past holiday season at MANNA. These dedicated folks helped sort through over 5,500 pounds of bread donations in one shift!

The Wells Fargo Foundation also made an important investment in our daily work to fill plates with a grant for food distribution! This grant will help MANNA fill over 35,000 plates for families in our region, and is vital to supporting the ongoing work to address hunger across WNC.

Our sincerest thanks to these individuals and corporations who come together to create the valuable partnerships that make it possible for MANNA to provide over 15 million meals a year.
Busking for Good: Young Musicians Raise Money for Food Support
Alexi,14 years old, and Eli,12 years old, came to visit us in December with a wonderful holiday surprise: over $200 in donations that they raised by playing their violins on the streets! This donation can help provide over 700 meals, and is proof positive that kids can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors who might not know where they will get their next meal.

Please help us thank these two young men by sharing their good deed with a friend! Feel free to share this email with a friend, or encourage your friends to sign up for our Fresh News emails!
Daily Food Distribution:
Thank You to Partners in the Work to End Hunger
The daily work towards meeting the need for food in WNC is supported only through partnerships with public and private entites, individuals, and organizations who make it their business to ensure that when a family in our area needs food, MANNA is there. Our work would not be possible without the support of the following organizations, who have invested in our food distribution efforts. Please join us in thanking these dedicated supporters:

  • Charles Schwab Foundation
  • Darden Foundation
  • Bank of America Charitable Foundation
  • TD Charitable Foundation
  • Wells Fargo Foundation
  • Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation
  • Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation
  • The S. L. Gimbel Foundation

Thanks to the recent support of these groups, we can help provide over 280,000 meals-worth of food! This goes a long way, as our staff and volunteers continue working hard towards our goal of more than 16 million meals provided for our 18/19 fiscal year.
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.